I 've been noticing a lot of bright hues and neon shades on the streets - all over the world - worn by fabulously stylish women. I figur...
*Ladies and gentleman, I would love to introduce to you a very special person in my life. She is my fashion soul-mate; she is my label spouse. We both share the appreciation for art and share the importance and devotion to all that is style. She is a former model, certified fashion journalist, and the art director of Daily Star. She is one half of S&M (no, not that s&m), my better half. She is S.
Sabrina will be, from time to time, contributing to this blog. Her knowledge should be taken to effect so I recommend the words you read from her should be put into practice. This specific piece is strictly for the ladies, but gentlemen, this is definitely something you can share with the women in your lives.*
For Part 1 of 2 click here: Beauty at Its Best
For Part 1 of 2 click here: Beauty at Its Best
Swept Away
In my last post, I started talking about the different types of make-up brushes, and concentrated on foundation, blush, and special effects like bronzer and shimmer. In this final installment, I would like to discuss the tools of the trade for playing up the focal points of your face: your lips and eyes.
Before I dive into that, I’ll let you in on a little secret. I don’t use brushes to do my eyes or lips. That’s right; I’ve discovered that my fingers blend, smudge and contour at least as well as, brushes do, and since my hands go wherever I go, I don’t have to pack a lot of brushes when I’m on the move. If you take a moment to really look at your fingertips, you’ll realize that they are all shaped and tapered differently to allow you a variety of effects. Kudos to Mother Nature. I will have to admit, though, this can get pretty messy, and for really high-end effects, you’re better off using brushes, so let’s look at them, shall we?
Eye spy
It used to be that you needed four different brushes to apply eye-shadow: a flat, stiff brush to pack on colour to the eyelid, a stiff dome brush for working with the darker colours while creating the smoky eyes, a soft dome brush for doing the blending work, and a pencil brush for smudging and precision work. The angled eye-shadow brush eliminates the need for the entire arsenal because its very shape allows it a lot of versatility. Choose one with a natural soft bristle, and the flat part helps you glide on your eye colour over the primer, and you can sweep it back and forth to blend, and the angle allows for greater precision. The Laura Mercier Angled Eye Colour brush is a very good example.
FY-Eye
A lot of make-up artists favor cream and powder eye-liner as opposed to pencil liners. These require a thin brush with short, stiff bristles to apply. Again, you have a variety of brushes to achieve this effect. Laura Mercier offers a fine point eyeliner brush which is particularly handy for liquid and cream liners. If you’re planning something more dramatic, like the Amy Winehouse winged eye effect, or ‘peacock’ and ‘cat’ eyes, you’d best have a flat brush in your repertoire. Elf’s eyeliner brush is a good, economically sound buy. Many eye shadow kits come equipped with a sponge smudging brush, which, as the name suggests, is for smudging colours under your lower lash-line. You’ll find separate sponge brushes in the market, but the ones that come with the sets do the work just fine.
Perfect Pouts
Cap off a perfectly made-up face with a pair of luscious lips. As the retro reds and matte lipsticks are making a comeback, lip-brushes are as popular as ever. Now, I’m a lip balm and gloss girl myself, so I can’t really say with much authority, but there was this one time I went to a make-up demonstration at Sephora, and the artist there created a WICKED pair of lips on me. She used a retractable lip brush from the Sephora Professional collection, so that’s what I’m going to recommend.
On a final note, remember to keep your brushes clean for maximum mileage. Brushes for liquid and cream make-up should be washed every day, and powder brushes every two weeks. Since most brushes are made from hair, clean them as you would your own hair - wash with shampoo and warm water, and blow-dry. If they start shedding, replace them immediately. Ditto for any sign of wear and tear on sponge brushes and those with synthetic bristles. Treat your brushes right, and they’ll reward you with make-up magic for a long, long time.
In my last post, I started talking about the different types of make-up brushes, and concentrated on foundation, blush, and special effects like bronzer and shimmer. In this final installment, I would like to discuss the tools of the trade for playing up the focal points of your face: your lips and eyes.
Before I dive into that, I’ll let you in on a little secret. I don’t use brushes to do my eyes or lips. That’s right; I’ve discovered that my fingers blend, smudge and contour at least as well as, brushes do, and since my hands go wherever I go, I don’t have to pack a lot of brushes when I’m on the move. If you take a moment to really look at your fingertips, you’ll realize that they are all shaped and tapered differently to allow you a variety of effects. Kudos to Mother Nature. I will have to admit, though, this can get pretty messy, and for really high-end effects, you’re better off using brushes, so let’s look at them, shall we?
Eye spy
It used to be that you needed four different brushes to apply eye-shadow: a flat, stiff brush to pack on colour to the eyelid, a stiff dome brush for working with the darker colours while creating the smoky eyes, a soft dome brush for doing the blending work, and a pencil brush for smudging and precision work. The angled eye-shadow brush eliminates the need for the entire arsenal because its very shape allows it a lot of versatility. Choose one with a natural soft bristle, and the flat part helps you glide on your eye colour over the primer, and you can sweep it back and forth to blend, and the angle allows for greater precision. The Laura Mercier Angled Eye Colour brush is a very good example.
FY-Eye
A lot of make-up artists favor cream and powder eye-liner as opposed to pencil liners. These require a thin brush with short, stiff bristles to apply. Again, you have a variety of brushes to achieve this effect. Laura Mercier offers a fine point eyeliner brush which is particularly handy for liquid and cream liners. If you’re planning something more dramatic, like the Amy Winehouse winged eye effect, or ‘peacock’ and ‘cat’ eyes, you’d best have a flat brush in your repertoire. Elf’s eyeliner brush is a good, economically sound buy. Many eye shadow kits come equipped with a sponge smudging brush, which, as the name suggests, is for smudging colours under your lower lash-line. You’ll find separate sponge brushes in the market, but the ones that come with the sets do the work just fine.
Perfect Pouts
Cap off a perfectly made-up face with a pair of luscious lips. As the retro reds and matte lipsticks are making a comeback, lip-brushes are as popular as ever. Now, I’m a lip balm and gloss girl myself, so I can’t really say with much authority, but there was this one time I went to a make-up demonstration at Sephora, and the artist there created a WICKED pair of lips on me. She used a retractable lip brush from the Sephora Professional collection, so that’s what I’m going to recommend.
On a final note, remember to keep your brushes clean for maximum mileage. Brushes for liquid and cream make-up should be washed every day, and powder brushes every two weeks. Since most brushes are made from hair, clean them as you would your own hair - wash with shampoo and warm water, and blow-dry. If they start shedding, replace them immediately. Ditto for any sign of wear and tear on sponge brushes and those with synthetic bristles. Treat your brushes right, and they’ll reward you with make-up magic for a long, long time.
* L adies and gentleman, I would love to introduce to you a very special person in my life. She is my fashion soul-mate; she is my label spo...
*Ladies and gentleman, I would love to introduce to you a very special person in my life. She is my fashion soul-mate; she is my label spouse. We both share the appreciation for art and share the importance and devotion to all that is style. She is a former model, certified fashion journalist, and the art director of Daily Star. She is one half of S&M (no, not that s&m), my better half. She is S.
Sabrina will be, from time to time, contributing to this blog. Her knowledge should be taken to effect so I recommend the words you read from her should be put into practice. This specific piece is strictly for the ladies, but gentlemen, this is definitely something you can share with the women in your lives.*
Click image captions for more info. (for the first part of makeup post click here: Back to Basics)
Click image captions for more info. (for the first part of makeup post click here: Back to Basics)
Bases Covered
To use foundation, or not to use foundation, that is the question that plagues most of us, even seasoned make-up users. This is pretty much the ‘first base’ of make-up, and probably one of the trickiest to get right. The fact that the market is glutted with a variety of options doesn’t make picking the right one an easy task. Before you head to the stores, ask yourself these questions, and it could save you a lot of time and money and help you maximize your make-up mileage.
- What is the occasion?
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| Philosophy's The Supernatural |
Unless you’re working in television or customer relations-related jobs there’s no real need for full-on make up on an everyday basis, and it’s perfectly alright to skip the heavy artillery and go for a simple gloss and mascara combo.
Philosophy’s ‘The Supernatural’ oil-free tinted primer with SPF is the perfect thing to have in your handbag for carefree, on-the-go coverage. It multitasks as a primer base for foundation, but can stand alone for a sheer finish, evening out your skin tone, minimizing pores and wrinkles and minor skin flaws. And it gives you sun-protection!
High-profile jobs and events require a little more make-up, and foundation is necessary for a polished, finished look.
- What is the right formulation for my skin type?
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| Mineral Powder SPF 15 |
This one is a no-brainer. You want to pick the formula that best suits your skin. If you have oily skin, look for words like ‘oil-free’, ‘oil-control’, or ‘mattifying’. Your best choice would be something with a matte or powder finish, like Laura Mercier’s Mineral Powder, or Shisheido’s Sheer Mattifying compact. For those with dry skin, you’d be better off with moisturizing foundations with a creamy base, and words like ‘hydrating’ on the bottle. Bobbi Brown and Benefit Cosmetics both have very popular cream foundations. People with combination skin would benefit from a cream-to-powder base like Urban Decay’s Surreal Skin, but if you have sensitive skin, look for something that is oil-free, fragrance free, non-comedogenic, and hypo-allergenic (phew! try saying that with your mouth full!). Personally, I have sensitive, oily skin, and I swear by mineral makeup, which is actually suitable for all skin types. Bare Escentuals bareMinerals have a great SPF 15 foundation range, and if you want a great bargain buy, get their Starter Kit, with all the brushes and primers you’ll need.
- How much coverage do I need?
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| Diorskin Airflash |
This also depends on your skin. If you’re blessed with good skin, but want to even out a few problem areas, you want light coverage. If you’re not a ‘make-up girl’, you might even get by skipping the foundation and using tinted moisturizer such as Laura Mercier’s SPF 20 tinted moisturizer, or Philosophy’s The Supernatural. Light coverage foundation usually comes in a liquid base, so Dior’s Diorskin Airflash Spray foundation is a good choice, and Sephora has its own hydrating and smoothing foundation in its collection.
Not all of us is blessed with flawless skin, and that’s why we have medium coverage foundations for really uneven skin tones or blemish-prone complexions. Smashbox has a great Camera Ready Full Coverage compact, with SPF 15. Again, I just go for mineral make-up because it takes coverage concerns out of the equation for me. Bellapierre’s mineral make-up works as concealer, foundation, sun protection, setting powder and finishing powder.
- How do I pick a foundation color?
This is the most crucial part of choosing your foundation. Get it right, and you have a flawless face. Get it wrong, and you end up looking like a Halloween freak-show. Luckily, a little trial and error at the make-up stand is all it takes to find the right color for your skin tone.
Foundation colours come in three undertones: warm, cool, and neutral. Warm tones are orange-ish, cool ones are pinkish, and neutrals are yellow and beige. To find out which one fits you, on a clean, scrubbed, make-up free face, pick a foundation colour close to your skin tone, in three different undertones. Paint a stripe of each along your jawline. The one that seems to disappear into your skin is the one that is the correct one for you. Keep experimenting with shades darker or lighter until you find one that completely disappears into your skin. This is the one you want, the one that will give you that flawless coverage you seek.
Once you ask the right questions, the choice is much simpler, and that sleek, polished perfection is totally achievable.
* L adies and gentleman, I would love to introduce to you a very special person in my life. She is my fashion soul-mate; she is my label spo...
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| fashioncelebrityonline.blogspot.com |
Sabrina will be, from time to time, contributing to this blog. Her knowledge should be taken to effect so I recommend the words you read from her should be put into practice. This specific piece is strictly for the ladies, but gentlemen, this is definitely something you can share with the women in your lives.
Tabula Rasa
Being an art-director for zero-budget photo shoots can be a major pain in the donkey. Not only do you have to find creative ways to make your set look glamorous, (I once had to improvise a backdrop for a Halloween party scene using a clothesline, a couple of old bed-covers, a few dead branches and a bucket), you can’t afford to hire professional models or make-up artists. Finding pretty people to grace your pages isn’t the hard part, contrary to what one may think. Bangladesh is full of pretty faces. Getting those faces ready for the camera? That’s a different story altogether.
Too often have I had to deal with models who just rush in from a long commute and onto the makeup chair without cleansing their faces. The lucky ones with unblemished skin don’t bother with things like skin tone. Models aren’t the only ones committing this basic beauty crime. Go to a wedding, or a high-profile event, and you will be able to spot the improperly applied, brittle cakes of foundation on many a face.
The purpose of make-up is to enhance one’s features and hide one’s flaws. Just as every painter needs a fresh canvas to work on, and the same principle applies to faces. Let’s look at how you can get your face prepped for make-up magic.
Working from inside out
Over the long haul, the best way to maintain flawless skin is to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Drink lots of water, get plenty of sleep, avoid fried and fatty foods, eat fruits, and exercise. Oh, and dont skip the sunscreen. None of this should be news to you, although it’s harder to implement than preach. The hard work definitely pays off, and you’ll end up needing less to look better.
Cleanse, tone, moisturize
There are many people who are also either lazy about exfoliating, or too scrub-happy. Strike a healthy balance, and use your facial scrubs no more than three days a week, follow with a gentle cleanser (never soap) and then moisturize like it’s going out of style.
All primed up
Cleansed, toned, moisturized, and primed up for action? Your canvas is now ready for the artwork to begin. Enjoy!
fashioncelebrityonline.blogspot.com L adies and gentleman, I would love to introduce to you a very special person in my life. She is my f...
