Valentine's Day Makeup Look

Valentine's Day Makeup Look

Valentine's Day is right around the corner, and those of us who celebrate want to look special for that date night out.  Even if you have no place to be, this feminine, pretty eyeshadow look is very easy to master, and simple enough to wear day or night. 

Sometimes we buy makeup palettes, but we don't always know what to do with them. One of my favorite eyeshadow palettes from 2012 was the Stila In The Light palette. It's my favorite because it is a complete palette. It contains enough matte and shimmer shades for a good variety of looks as well as a good amount of light medium and dark colors. All of the shadows in the palette are pigmented and blend well. They can work on all skin tones to create a variety of looks. While this tutorial focuses on the eyes, I did use several other Stila products to create this look. I'll list them below in case you are interested. 

I love this Stila palette so much, that I decided to create a series of looks using the palette. This is look 1 in a series of three looks using the In The Light palette because I know so many of you have it. 

Here is how I created the eye look:  

• Prime the lids using Stila Prime Pot in Taffy. If you have a medium or darker complexion, try Caramel instead. Any of your favorite eye primers will work just fine. I like to apply my primer with a brush to create a nice thin layer.
• Define the crease with Stila One Step Prime Color in Bronze Babe (optional).  I applied mine with a concealer brush to just the crease area.
• Next, from the Stila In The Light palette, choose the color Bare (a matte ivory). Pick up some of the color on a small brush and apply just under the brow as your highlight color.
• For the lid color, I mixed Bliss (a pinky nude) with Kitten (a golden pink shimmer) and applied allover the lid.
• To define the crease, I picked up the color Sandstone (matte brown) on an angled shader brush, with the point angled down into the crease, and swept the color into my crease using a windshield wiper motion. 

• Take a clean blending brush, and blend out any harsh edges where the crease color meets the highlight shade. I used a Coastal Scents synthetic blending brush. 

• To further define the eye, I mixed the last three colors in the palette, Luster, Night Sky and Ebony. Just pick up a little of each on a very small brush and apply to the outer corner of the eye, blending slightly up into the crease (be sure to tap off any excess before applying to prevent fallout). Pull the color inward to blend with the lid color. Apply more as needed, always starting at the outer corner and pulling the color inward. 

• Next, go back to your highlight color, Bare (matte ivory), and highlight the inner corner of the eye and tear duct area for a brightening effect. 

• Apply Bliss to the center of the bottom lash line. 
• Take a mix of Luster, Night Sky and Ebony (the bottom 3 colors in the palette) and smudge along the outer corner of the lower lash line. 

• Line waterline with a white or nude liner. I used Stila Kajal Eye Liner in Pearl.  However, if you have a darker skin tone, I recommend Tarte's Inner Rim Brightener which is a nude color and will look less stark against a darker complexion.

 

• All of the shadows in this palette can be used wet or dry. I chose to use Ebony dry as a liner on my upper lash line using a small smudge brush. However, for more intensity, you can wet the brush first, or use your favorite eye liner. 

• Curl lashes and apply your favorite mascara. If you want you can add falsies, but I chose to skip them. 

With the eye look complete, I decided to add a little blush to the cheeks. I've been loving this new Stila All You Need is Love Cheek Palette.  It comes with four blush shades, that when blended create the perfect glowy flush. 

On lips, I used Stila Long Wear Lip Liner in Charming, topped with Stila Lip Glaze in Apricot. I applied Stila Lip Glaze in Kitten to just the center of the lips for added fullness. 

Other products used in this look:

Stila All Day HD Illuminating Beauty Balm (as primer)
Stila Stay All Day Foundation and Concealer
Stila One Step Bronze
Stila All Over Shimmer Liquid Luminizer

Brushes: 

Illamasqua Eyeshadow Brush

Elf Small Smudge Brush Studio Line  (for eyeliner)

Coastal Scents BR-C-S06 Blending Brush

Eco Tools Smudge Brush (small brush used to apply outer corner color)

Real Techniques Concealer Brush used to apply highlight shade (Bare)

Everyday Minerals Angled Eyeshadow Brush to apply crease color

Bdellium Tools 945 Contour Brush to apply my blush

Real Techniques Buffing Brush to powder my T-Zone and sweep away fallout

Christopher Drummond Concealer Brush to apply eye primer

Sedona Lace 224 to blend concealer

Urban Decay Multi Task Brush to apply concealer

Urban Decay Optical Blurring  Brush to apply Stila One Step Bronze

 

Here is the completed look:

All of the products seen in this look were purchased by me (including brushes).  I would absolutely love to see pictures if you try recreating this look. I hope you have a very happy Valentine's Day!

Spotlight: Lime Crime

Lime Crime

This post is long overdue and much requested. I've been testing out some makeup products from the brand Lime Crime. While this independent company has gotten some bad press, I can only speak to my own personal experience with the brand. I feel badly if people have had a bad experience with any brand, but I can only make judgements based on specific products I've used. 

All of the products in this post were purchased by me. What drew me to the brand is their brightly colored cosmetics and unique packaging. Also, none of their products are tested on animals and they offer many vegan options.

You can learn more about the brand, here: http://www.limecrimemakeup.com

The brand has newly formulated their eyeshadow primer to make it completely vegan. They have also repackaged it into a squeeze tube and increased the size of the product, without raising the cost (something virtually unheard of in the makeup world).  Lime Crime's Eyeshadow Helper is waterproof and when spread over eyelids adds staying power and increases the intensity of your eyeshadow.  This eye primer is a bit thick, so you can only squeeze a little bit out of the tube at a time, which is fine because a little goes a long way. The color is a light peach and it dries to a matte finish. This is one of the best eye primers I have ever used. I have problems with eyeshadow creasing due to the shape of my lids, and I found this product helps even with some of my cheaper eyeshadows. 

Next, I tried the Alchemy Eyeshadow Palette.  All of the colors in the palette were very pigmented and easy to blend. Even without an eye primer underneath, the color payoff is impressive.  The packaging is really adorable, and looks unique among my palette collection. All of the shadows in this collection are duochrome, meaning they shift to a different color when they hit the light a certain way. Love Potion #9 has the most shift of all the shades.

All swatches are without a primer underneath:

 Pictured: above without flash, below with flash.

Pictured from left to right:

Incantation - Copper orange with gold shimmer
Lucky Charm – Emerald green with lighter green shift (shimmer)

Love Potion #9 – Purple/pink shift (shimmer)

Spellbound – White/Gold shift (shimmer)

Divination – blue/teal shift (shimmer)

Next, I tried the lip colors. If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen me tweet a picture wearing the Red Velvet Velvetines lip color by Lime Crime on Christmas Day.

Lime Crime's Velvetines lip colors come in two shades: Suedeberry and Red Velvet. They are described as a matte gloss.  They apply like a gloss with a doe foot applicator, but the color is opague and provides a matte velvet finish on the lips.

I also purchased two lipsticks from the brand in Coquette and Centrifuchsia.  Like everything the brand seems to make, these are extremely pigmented and opaque.

Here are swatches of the lip products (below from left to right Centrifuchsia, Coquette, Red Velvet):

The lipsticks remind me a bit of OCC Lip Tars, mostly because of their opacity. If you like the idea of a lip tar, but not the application process, you may want to try these lipsticks which come in tube. I will say, I think these also apply better with a lip brush rather than straight from the tube.  Centrifuchsia is a bright fuchsia color while Coquette is a peachy pink nude. 

My absolute favorite product from the brand is their liquid eyeliner. I have the color Lazuli which is not only the brightest blue liner I've ever used, but is also the easiest to apply. I'm not sure what it is about the brush, but you can easily get a very thin line, and the formula dries so quickly that you never have to worry about smudging. If you prefer a traditional black liquid liner, they carry that also in the color Quill, which is a very intense black with a glossy finish.

While you may not want to wear all of the colors at the same time, I wanted to show you how they look on the eye as well, not just in swatches, so I did a quick eye look for you using all of the colors in the palette (pictured above). Their lipsticks also work well as cream blushes and you only need the tiniest amount to get the perfect flush.

I hope you enjoyed this look at Lime Crime. Have you tried the brand? What are your favorite products from Lime Crime?

Physicians Formula Spring 2013 Line - Review

 Physicians Formula 

When I was in CVS one day, I saw the new Physicans Formula display which featured their new BB line and Sexy Booster products. I immediately purchased them as I was drawn to the adorable packaging of these products. No matter how you feel about the product inside, you can't deny the packaging is totally adorable! I was also super excited to see a cruelty-free BB Cream as there aren't many drugstore versions on the market that I'm aware of (I can name 3 brands). 

 All of the products in this review were purchased by me. I never receive any compensation for reviews. 

Here is what I think about the products, including swatches:

To begin the look, I prepped my skin with Mineral Wear Talc-Free Mineral Correcting Primer.  This was probably an unnecessary step, but I generally like to prime my skin to increase the staying power of my makeup. This product claims to color correct skin, fill in fine lines and increase the staying time of your makeup. It is hypoallergenic and fragrance free. I actually didn't realize this comes in three colors; green, nude and pink highlighter. The one I have is Pink Highlighter.

What I like about it: I think the brush tip applicator is very convenient. I actually have never used a primer with this type of applicator before. It makes it very easy to apply a nice thin layer of product. Once I have the layer I desire, I then smooth out with my fingers to avoid any streaks. It absorbs quickly and feels nice on the skin.

What I don't: I really like this product. I don't have any complaints about it. It does what it claims. 

Next, I applied the Super BB Cream. BB Cream here in the U.S. stands for Beauty Balm. This product contains an SPF of 30 and is meant to function as both a skincare and makeup product. It claims to provide moisture to the skin, and some coverage much like a foundation or tinted moisturizer does. 

What I like about it: It's lightweight, applies effortlessly with fingers, a brush or sponge, and I love the SPF factor as well. This is time saving for me, because I don't need a separate sunscreen. While it does not cover all of my blemishes, it does provide medium coverage and dries to a semi-matte finish.

What I don't: I wouldn't mind if it had just a touch more coverage, but that's what concealer is for. I'm pretty happy with this product.  However, I don't think it will work for all skin tones. They only make two shades; light/medium and medium/deep. I think if someone is very fair or has a very deep complexion, chances are the coloring will be off for you. For me, I've been using a self-tanner pretty much since I got this product, so I'm probably 1 shade darker than my natural skin tone and I find this is a great match for me. 

 For any blemishes that the Super BB Cream did not cover, I then applied the Super BB All-In-One Beauty Balm Concealer. Like the primer, this has a brush on applicator. It promises to cover imperfections, and is both hypoallergenic and fragrance-free. 

What I like about it: This is a nice creamy product. It does a pretty good job of covering up my dark circles, though my circles are so bad, I really need a corrector underneath. It definitely covers all of my blemishes and acne scars.

What I don't: I really don't have any complaints about this product. It works well for me. 

To set my concealer, I topped it off with the Super BB All-In-One Beauty Balm Powder. In my opinion this is the star of the BB line. I am super impressed with this powder. It claims to diffuse the appearance of imperfection and act as protection from UV rays. This is the first BB Powder on the market (and only one that I am aware of).  I know makeup artists everywhere are cringing at the idea of BB Powder. Sometimes companies take things a little too far, and new products seem a bit gimmicky. However, I really do think this is a good product. Is it a totally new product, or just a really good mineral powder? Well, I'm not really sure, but whatever name you want to give it, in my opinion it is still a good product. 

What I like about it:  This is also hypoallergenic and fragrance free.  I love how creamy the texture is. Although it is a powder, it doesn't have a really dry texture. It is very pigmented almost more like a powder foundation. For me, this product is the icing on the cake and really completes the line, giving my skin that flawless look. 

What I don't: I really wish this product came with a powder puff, or round sponge. I honestly don't understand what they were thinking including the very strange thin firm brush that comes with this compact. However, that wouldn't deter me from repurchasing this product. I simply used a puff or sponge that I had in my stash, and put the brush to the side. You are also going to have the same color issues with the entire BB line, as this also only comes in two shades. I think if they expanded the shade selection, and added a puff or round sponge this product would be nearly perfect. I would also like to add, that this product is perfect for me, and my skin type. However, if someone had super oily skin, I don't know that this would work. It actually does not have a matte finish, but somewhat of a satin finish (think Nars Laguna Bronzer).  I also don't know that it would work for extremely dry skin types, as once you build product to add coverage, it can cling to dry bits (though that's easily solved with a setting spray).  So I think this works best for normal, combo or sensitive skin types. 

 Note how pigmented the product is (picture above). I just touched my finger to the product.

 Pictured Above: I'm unsure why they included this very firm thin brush.

 All of the products are a nice size, so I think these will last me for a while. I replaced the brush in the compact with a round synthetic sponge. I've also applied it with a powder puff, which also works well.

In conclusion, I'm very happy with Physicians Formula BB line. I found that all of the products can hold their own individually, but they really worked best together. When I used all three products together (BB Cream, Concealer and BB Powder), I really got a flawless look to my skin. 

For color, I reached for the Sexy Booster line.  I used a powder brush to gently buff the Sexy Booster Sexy Glow Bronzer along my neck, jawline and face. I wasn't sure if I was going to like this product, because it contains so much shimmer. I typically reach for a matte bronzer. However, after application, I was really impressed with beautiful glow it gave my skin. I think this would work great as a highlighter on deeper skin tones. 

What I like about it: It really does leave a beautiful glow on the skin. The packaging may be one of the cutest I've ever seen from a drugstore brand! 

What I don't: This is not super pigmented, in fact it's somewhat sheer, but I think that's what makes the product work. If it where super pigmented and had shimmer, it might look unnatural. I was lucky and found this product by chance, but I'm hearing some are having trouble finding this product in stores. Again, I'm not fond of the brush, but I can only think of one brand that I ever used the included brush with (Hourglass). Not a real negative for me, because I use my own synthetic brushes, which work great for application. I almost wish they didn't include any brush at all, though I'm not sure everyone will agree with me.

 Pictured Below: The bottom opens up to reveal a mirror & brush

The product actually contains two colors the background color is your shimmery bronzer. The elevated corset contains a light gold shimmer.  When you swirl your brush into both products, you get the right amount of both on your brush, and they blend on your skin to create a sexy glow.  

Pictured below: The top swatch is the background color, and the lower swatch is the light gold shimmer from the corset. 

Since the bronzer gave me such a gorgeous glow, I could have stopped here. However, I do like a bit of rosiness to the cheeks, son I swept on the Sexy Booster Sexy Glow Blush.  You won't need a separate highlighter with this blush, because it is also shimmery. Again, I normally opt for matte finish blushes, but this ended up being a two-in-one product for me. I think of it as blush with added highlighter because it gives that nice glow. The product has a vanilla scent to it which most will find pleasing.

What I like about it: This really does give you a beautiful glow. I have fair skin, so with blushes, I have to be careful that they aren't too dark. I actually think this would look good on just about any skin tone. There are two shades in one compact just like the bronzer. Your base shade is a light shimmery pink, but the shoe in the center is a darker peachy pink shimmer blush similar to Nars Orgasm. The packaging is adorable.

What I don't:  I really have nothing bad to say about this product. Again, I wouldn't use the brush, but that's pretty much true of all drugstore brushes, and doesn't really come into play as far as my overall feelings about the product. 

For eyes, I reached for the Shimmer Strips Custom Eye Enhancing Shadow and Liner, Universal Looks in Nude Eyes. This is an adorable collection of nude shimmery shadows housed in a cute little package. What is so great about these is that the darker colors can be used wet and function perfectly as liner. 

What I like about it: I love that you can use these wet or dry. I actually find the sponge applicator useful in this case, as I like them for shimmery shadow application to minimize fallout. I think you get a nice selection of really wearable colors here. If you like nude shimmery shades, go for this palette. This palette will work with any eye color because it contains neutral shades. I also used the lightest shade to highlight my cupid's bow using a small brush. Physicians Formula sells a few variations of this palette Nude, Smokey, Fashionista and Casual.  They also have a Nude Collection that comes in Natural, Warm, Classic and Smokey. The palettes all look somewhat similar, so make sure you read the package so you know which you are purchasing. This is really an excellent value. It's only $10.95 and you get 9 eyeshadows that double as liners!

What I don't: I do wish that they included at least a couple of matte shades. I would have loved to see a matte cream color, matte brown and matte black. Had they included those shades, it would be a perfect palette. 

I could have used one of the dark shades wet as liner, but I chose to use Physicians Formula Shimmer Strips Custom Eye Enhancing Gel CreamLiner Glam Collection in Glam Brown Eyes. While I don't have brown eyes, I like the colors in this trio better than the one intended for blue eyes. These are really unique. They have a metallic finish, and the texture is very different than other gel liners I've used. 

What I like about it: These are extremely long lasting. I have used these when doing makeup on others as a base for an eyeshadow look. I used these on someone for a wedding, and it worked out great. These are waterproof, and they are safe for contact lens wearers or people with sensitive eyes.

What I don't: I have nothing bad to say about this product. 

 On the lips, I used Sexy Booster Sexy Glow Glossy Stain. This is a richly pigmented red gloss-stain hybrid. Physicians Formula claims this product is kiss-proof. 

What I like about it: It is certainly long lasting. It's very pigmented. It has a nice scent. It's a blue based red so it makes your teeth look very white. Again, the packaging is so cute!

What I don't: Immediately after application, it has a tacky feel to it. However, after a few minutes it feels weightless on the lips and I actually forgot I had it on until I looked in the mirror. I don't actually think this product is kiss proof. I kissed the back of my hand after a few hours of wear, and was left with a lip imprint. However, it does wear well. After hours of wear, it still looks freshly applied without any caking or flaking. I also wouldn't really call it glossy, though it does leave a beautiful sheen on the lips, much more so that a plain lip stain.

 Pictured above: This comes with an angled doe foot applicator, and applies smoothly to the lips.

I finished the look with a couple coats of Physicians Formula FakeOut Mascara.  Here is the completed look:

I also included the above photo before I did the lips so you could see how the skin looked in natural light (unretouched photo). 

There are also a few new products from Physicians Formula that I did not use for this particular look, but I wanted to share with you anyway. One is a matte bronzer, and the other shimmery bronzing beads. 

Happy Booster Glow & Mood Boosting Illuminating Bronzing Veil: Comes with bronze and gold loose hearts that you can swirl a brush into or apply using the enclosed puff.  These do not have a lot of pigmentation, and are probably best used as a highlight over another bronzer. 

  

How-To-Wear Bronzer: I just got this product, so haven't used it enough for a full review. However, my first impressions are good. While I don't need instruction on how to bronze, many people do. And even if you don't need instruction, everyone needs a good matte bronzer. This comes with two shades, a lighter and darker within the same compact. The product is also available in two different shades; light bronzer, and bronzer. I am actually really excited about this product. It's only $13.95 and I think the quality is excellent. The packaging is adorable, and you get a decent amount of product. I think everyone should try this if you are searching for a good matte bronzer because it can also double as a contouring powder. I think I'll get a lot of use out of this. If Too Faced wins my vote for best bronzers for a high end brand, Physicians Formula wins my vote for best drugstore bronzers.

In conclusion, Physicians Formula has some really great new products on the market. This is one of the first makeup brands I ever used as a teenager, and it continues to be a favorite of mine today. I have several other newer items I picked up from the brand, but this is quickly becoming the never ending blog post, so I think I'll end it here. I'm really happy with the direction this brand is headed in. I hope they expand their foundation skin tone range and then they'll be a complete brand for me. I really seem to be able to find just about everything I need from them. 

Have you tried any of the new Physicians Formula products yet?  I would love to hear, especially if you tried any of the BB products in the Medium/Dark shade, I would love to hear how the coloring worked for you. 

Drop me a comment in the box below. Please do not link to your own blog, or comment will not be published. All comments are individually approved, so don't worry if you don't see your comment appear right away. 

As always, thanks for reading!