A Quick EOTD

Hi everybody,

This is my attempt to post more regularly before everybody run away and leave me behind with my blog, hah! Recently, I've been in a FOTD (face of the day) fiend. Usually, whenever I do my makeup, the look is so simple that I do not even care to photograph at all. However, the most recent looks are so nice that I think they deserve to be mentioned. So here is a quick EOTD (eye of the day). This eye look is something I do on a daily basis as it is not too bright and appropriate for conservative working environment.

The eye look

The colors I used are from my ELF quad that I packed a while ago (see this entry.) I really love Warm Chill and Amber Lights so I use them almost on a daily basis, yet barely to make dents on these two eye shadows.

The schematic is explained after the jump

This look is quite simple, you only need a few colors:

Apply Amber Lights (yellow area in the schematic) all over the lid with MAC 217 brush, then Warm Chill (green area) on the outer corner of your eye with the same brush and blend them together with MAC 222 blending brush. I used a highlighting color (white area) to apply to the inner corner of my eye with the same blending brush and blend it together with Warm Chill. Finally, I use the same highlighter and apply on the brow bone.

To line the eyes, I used Flashtrack e/s as a liner, then finish it off with some mascara.

After it's done, the eye should look like that

the look without mascara :)

Warm Chill is an interesting color: it has some specks of green in it that did not show with other eye shadows. Only with Amber Lights that the green shows up, which is very pretty! I tried to photograph this look with the old camera but it did not show. With my current camera, not only do the colors show, the details are very vivid as well. Yay to my cheap camera!

That's all for today, folks! I hope you enjoy this EOTD look and please come back soon!

Take care and stay gorgeous,
Your Makeup Blogger

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A Teeny Tiny Haul from CVS

Hi ladies,

Recently, I went to CVS out of boredom. It’s my habit to stop by a drugstore or mass-market shopping place to browse the makeup department even way before I started blogging here. Now, I do not visit drugstores that often anymore, although there are three or four drugstores, a Walmart, a K-Mart, and a Target up and down the street. I just do it whenever I’m bored. Somehow seeing and touching makeup without salespeople helicoptering around actually relaxes and inspires me. I know, weird!

After after what seemed like a decade circling around the L'Oreal HIP display, I finally got a metallic duo in Gilded as I am trying to build a better neutral collection. Also, I picked up a book in a clearance bin on the way to the cash register. I went to the cashier, gave her two items and a coupon. The total rang out around $4.50!

Now, this probably is one of the proudest moments of my life as I finally accomplished the unthinkable: the savings is a lot higher than the prices before the sales! The duo: $7.99 USD, the book: $9.99 USD, the coupon: $2 off. The total: less than $4.50 USD. Ridiculous!

The teeny tiny haul, so small that it should not deserve to be called a haul!
L'Oreal HIP Gilded eyeshadow duo and Women's Health Training Guide 2009

The book was on sale for a dollar, CVS has to dump their magazines to display new stuff. The book would still be in display until May 5th but for some reasons it made its way to the clearance bin. The eye shadow duo was on sale for 5 dollars, the coupon sweetened it up a whole lot more. Are you proud of me, my dear readers?

And the icing on my cake is: Gilded is actually a really good eye shadow duo! The pigmentation is off the chain and the texture is very MAC like that I almost uttered some colorful four-letter words after doing an impromptu swatch. Now, if you have not heard of L’Oreal HIP metallic eye shadows, they are a huge step up from the regular HIP eye shadows. The later one has one matte and one shimmery/metallic eye shadows. Often times, people only use the shimmery side and the matte one gets neglected. It’s like a rip-off to some of us as we only can use one side so L’Oreal being a good company decided to up their game a bit. As a result, the metallic eye shadow duos were born: you get two metallic colors while the texture as well as pigmentation are a lot better than the regular version. In my book, that’s called good makeup right there.

After playing with Gilded, I realized it is a good dupe of two LE pigments that I have, i.e. “expensive and basically not being produced anymore that I don’t dare to use” makeup. The lighter color is a darker and dirtier version of Bronzescape solar bits while the darker color resembles Black Ore solar bits from MAC Solar Fields LE last summer. It feels like a gazillion year ago but actually was only last summer! And did I mention the pigmentation? It is off the chain! I touched it lightly and my goodness, the pigmentation is very good! If I dare to compare these metallic eye shadows with the limited edition ones that MAC has churned out recently, I can confidently say MAC has lost its mojo. These are not sheer eye shadows at all, they are bold and bright and somewhat intimidating. The metallic eye shadows are not for the faint of hearts. They scream, “go bold or go home” and I definitely do not want to go home without them. Yeah, they are that good, with or without the sale.

Top: Gilded e/s duo, Bottom (L-R): Bronzescape and Black Ore

Skin swatch: (top) Gilded, (bottom) Bronzescape and Black Ore

For the book, I’ve been lovin’ it a lot. Since I am not a gym rat, I exercise at home and often times fall off the wagon. Fitness magazines, although very informative, can be confusing and sometimes not home exercising friendly. This training guide actually has workout plans that you can do without using any equipment. The workouts are simple and non-intimidating enough for me to follow. When Women’s Health came out, it was just a shadow of Men’s Health magazine, which is a bible to some of the guys out there. However, it has improved tremendously and I find the magazine’s approach to fitness compelling to me.

That's all for today, folks! Today the sun is up, finally, after so many days of bad weather. Basically, it rained so hard that I was stuck indoor for the majority of the weekend. At some point, I even ran out of food T_T So before the weather is misbehaving again, I need to do some grocery shopping to keep myself afloat.

Take care and have a wonderful week ahead!

Love,
Your Makeup Blogger

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Five Things to Do to Lessen Acne

Hi ladies,

It’s hump day and I hope you are getting through the day as peachy as possible. The weather has been so awesome lately that I feel a whole lot happier. Some days, I even feel like Cinderella dancing around in the forest because after all, the back of my apartment complex is the woods.

For those who have been following me around since the beginning of this blog, you know I am a long time acne sufferer. Recently, I have noticed that my skin has become much better. For a very long time, a better skin day to me consisted of having around 10 zits. How, I would have about 3 pimples on a bad day. Amazing, huh?

So it got me thinking a lot of why my skin has been so amazing lately. What have I done to deserve such a big blessing? Believe me, having blemish-free skin is a very big blessing in my book. Although this is not a comprehensive guide to blemish-free skin, I think a few changes actually make a big difference on my outlook. As I am no medical doctor or dermatologist, these are not my advice but simply my own experience that I would like to share to you and hopefully will help you as well.

Academy Award Winner Kate Winslet, the new face of Lancôme, has amazing skin
Image courtesy Diets in Review

Are we ready for the list? Let’s go!

Change number 1: Switch to a gentle face wash or cleanser

This probably is the change that makes a big difference to me. Before I started using Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser, I pretty much had a big dislike on almost every face washes I tried. One was too oily- the other was too drying. One was too perfumey- the other was too bland. One was too rough- the other barely clean anything at all! Well, you get the picture, right?

So when Cetaphil GSC came along my way with a sale, I was a bit skeptical. After all, how good is this plain vanilla skin cleanser is anyways? It turned out to be really good and I reviewed it before (click here.) Plus, it is one of a few “dermatologists’ darlings” out there and you bet the derms are right.

The moral of the story: go ahead and get Cetaphil GSC, then wash it with a gentle washcloth. You get both cleansing and exfoliating that way.

Change number 2: Change your sunscreen

We all know “pale is the new tan” and wearing sunscreen with SPF 30 and above is the must. However, sunscreen and your skin may not like each other. As a result, your skin may have a minor freak out that result in some pimples. Now, there are two types of sunscreens: physical and chemical. Physical sunscreens shields your skin from the sun by reflecting or scattering the lights like mirrors while chemical sunscreens protects your skin from getting burned by absorbing the UV rays that hit your face. The most commonly known chemical sunscreen is Avobenzone and the irony of chemical sunscreens is they are sensitive to heat. As a result, once exposed to the sun, chemical sunscreen's life span is quite ephemeral.

Two common physical sunscreens are titanium dioxide and zinc oxide. The good news is physical sunscreens are longer lasting than chemical sunscreens. Also, TiO2 and ZnO are skin-calming compounds that are very beneficial for acne sufferers. And you guess them right: these two oxides are main ingredients in mineral makeup.

The moral of the story: unless you are allergic to metals, switching to physical sunscreen may be beneficial for your skin.

Change number 3: Wash your face after you wash your hair

I learned this trick from Allure magazine a couple years ago and it actually works very well to eliminate zits along the hairline. Before, I used to have lots of tiny but painful pimples around my face. After they were gone, the scars left behind made me look like I just had a face transplant or something. It was utterly horrendous but as the zits were so close to the hairline, nobody paid any attention unless I tied my hair back. At that time, I still had short hair and of course, to save myself from the scars I wore my hair close to my face.

The trick is very simple: after you are done with cleaning and conditioning your hair, just simply wash your face while you are still in the shower.

“Why should I do that?” you may ask. It’s very simple: your shampoo and especially conditioner leave behind a thin film of soap and moisturizer around the hairline, which is the perfect condition for trapped bacteria to grow on your trapped dead skin cells. By washing your face afterward, you eliminate that film and therefore, bacteria have nowhere to go! Brilliant, right?

The moral of the story: try it and you will see amazing result very soon.

Change number 4: Your pillowcases and the drying sheets/fabric softener

For those who have suffered from zits growing around your chin, your drying sheets may be blamed on. The drying sheets and fabric softener act like conditioner to your clothes as they keep the clothes soft and static-free. Like your conditioner, they also leave a thin layer of softener to your clothes and hence, if you are a side sleeper, the stuff actually transfers to your face while you sleep.

So what should you do? Avoid using drying sheets and fabric softener and enduring the tough, crunchy towels and jeans? Hells to the no, girlfriends! Before you transfer your clothes to the dryer, simply pick out the pillowcases and let them air dry. If you have a lot of pillowcases, you can do a load sans drying sheets and off you go. If you only use fabric softener, just switch to using drying sheets and take the pillowcases out as I mentioned earlier.
The moral of the story: although it may take more time initially, separating the pillowcases is a good move. Your face will thank you later on.

Change number 5: Read the ingredients of products that you use

After my discovery of change number 3, I was elated to see the number of zits around my hairline dwindled down to single digits. However, as time went by I realized some zits still lingered around and once one was gone, another one popped back up at almost the same spot. Weird, huh?

Being a sometimes complainer, I vented my frustration on one of my cousins who used to be an acne sufferer himself. (His skin became smooth after using Neutrogena, by the way!) The cousin asked me this question: what kind of hair products do you use? I mumbled an answer to him that I do not remember and then he gave me this big revelation: it’s the alcohol! “Stay away from the alcohol,” he said, “it does not do your skin any good.”

After that, I went to the bathroom that was choke-full of hair styling products- I had short hair at the time, I was entitled to them- and began to check the ingredient list on every single one of them. Guess what? The ones that gave me that awesomely spiky flipped out hair have SD alcohol as well as other comedogenic ingredients. It took me time to throw them away, as some of them were pricey and after trials and errors, I figured out the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The moral of the story: SD alcohol is in a lot of hair and skincare products. I would avoid it at all costs as it is drying for the skin. Also, I find dimethicone to cause blackheads to me as well. Those two are currently on my black list. For hair products, I would avoid waxy hair gels, pomade, and putty. Those tend to be stickier and can aggravate my skin more than the thinner gels or mousse.

The two brands that produce hair styling product that do not aggravate my skin are Garnier Fructise and of course, Aveda. Garnier products, which are formulated in France, are a lot cheaper than Aveda’s but they perform very well. Aveda’s products, being a high-end salon brand, are more concentrated and a little bit lasts a very long time.

That’s all for today, folks. This is a long winding post without lots of pictures but I sincerely hope the tricks will help some of you out there. If you have some other tips and tricks to eliminate acne, please feel free to share. I hope to hear from you.

Take care and stay gorgeous,
Your Makeup Blogger

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Spring Makeover: My New Hair and Eyebrows

Hi everybody,

It's Monday again and finally, spring is here! In my neck of the woods, the weather is cooling and very sunny. I actually enjoy it when it is cool so I am savoring every single day of this kind of weather. Soon, it is going to get scorching hot and humid which I do not prefer to endure.

After the big kahuna brush collection post, I felt exhilarating and exhausted at the same time. Who said reviewing a sleuth of brushes is easy?! Anyways, the lust for makeup brushes does not calm down and right now I am tempted to order some couple of brushes that I have not had. I know it's like a sickness as no amount of brushes is enough for me at the moment.

And guess what? After all these talks about the weather and brushes, I have news for you...

... I just got a haircut recently and it was awesome! As usual, I went to Aveda Institute to get dolled up but this time it was a bit different. Apparently, the economy is not as rosy and it affects the service people and to stimulate their institute, my local Aveda Institute had an open house for their loyal customers. The event gives 20% off to products and appointments and you can't imagine how many people came with their calendars to book appointments for the future (they allow you to book up to 3 appointments ahead.) Since my hair was getting long, I booked an appointment for the following day. If you have not been in an open house at Aveda, you really miss out a lot of things. They gave me free hand, neck, and shoulder massages, makeup application, and hair consultation. I also got an eyebrow waxing for 5 dollars, the money is donated to a charity.

New hair: same layered look but with more volume

I think I just ate right before taking the pictures so there was no lipstick, boo hoo!

Overall, the haircut was fantastic: the student in training who did my hair gave me lots of volume and used 4-5 different products on my hair. She gave me a wonderful blow out and I came out of the salon with my hair looking like Eva Longoria's! The whole experience was so wonderful that I thought I got a $200 haircut for less than 10 dollars, thanks to the 20% discount!

New eyebrows :)

For my eyebrows, it was my first waxing experience at Aveda and let me tell you this: it did not hurt at all! Usually, I would scream my head off or cry whenever I got an eyebrow wax. However, the wax that Aveda uses is plant base and very gentle to the skin. I came out of the salon looking normal as there was no redness on the areas that were waxed at all! Usually, the eyebrow waxing costs $10 at my local Aveda Institute but I got mine done for cheap, score! The student who did my brows was so nice and patient. I told her my brow issue (each of them have their own shapes) and she inspected them before started waxing the unwanted hair off. After some minutes later, the eyebrows looked more like sisters than strangers and my face looked more open as well. Really, some minor changes in your brows make a big impact on how your face looks overall.

Ever since I came to the Sunshine State, I was struggling to find a good hair salon to give me good haircuts until I found Aveda Institute. If there is one near your place, you should get advantage of their services as the price is very affordable and they give good services. Also, all products used during your visit are Aveda's and they are all plant-derived and/or from natural sources. Aveda takes pride in formulating their products and I've seen significant changes in my hair since I started using Brilliant and Phomollient. Since I started going to Aveda Institue, the only hair days I've got are good hair days. Just imagine how wonderful life has been to me!

That's all for Monday, I hope you'll have a good week ahead.

Take care and stay gorgeous,
Your Makeup Blogger

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All My Brushes

Hi everybody,

Happy Wednesday! How’s everybody doing? It’s been a crazy week for me so far and I have to short-change on blogging a bit this week. After spring break, everything seems to go in super sonic speed or something. Since we start our semester at the beginning of January, spring break signals the end of 2/3 of the term. Scary, huh?

As I mentioned before, today I am going to show you my brush collection. I am without shame an avid brush collector and after many years, the brushes just add up. Once in a while, I brought home one or two brushes and right now the amount of brushes I have is enough to be split into 2 or 3 sets if I were a makeup artist.

Do you care to take a look? The brushes are nowhere near the expensive range and I am not in anyway flaunting my wealth. This is just an entry to record what I have so far and if you have any questions about the brushes, please feel free to ask.

All my brushes :)

Face brushes

1. Winsor and Newton series 240 brush #3: this brush I’ve blogged before and it is an artist’s brush. However, it is softer, fuller, and a lot cheaper than a MAC 129 brush. I use it as a powder brush to apply finishing powder like Everyday Minerals Natural Reflections.

2. Winsor and Newton series 240 brush #1: this brush is a smaller sister of #3 than I mentioned above. The series 240 brushes are made from goat hair and they are super soft! I use it to contour my cheeks and the circumference of my face.

3. Sonia Kashuk flat top synthetic blusher brush: this brush also has its own entry and I call it my teddy bear brush as it is as soft as a teddy bear. This brush is not only just for blushes but also to apply mineral foundations. This probably is one of the pricier brushes of the bunch but Sonia Kashuk makes great and reliable brushes that last for years.

4. Everyday Minerals dual fibre brush: this brush is no longer on sale at EDM and it is a good dupe for MAC dual fibre brush, aka my dream brush. It is good to apply blushes, especially the shimmer blushes from Adorned with Grace, mineralized, skin finishes, or finishing powder. It gives a very nice glow to the face when used with dry powder. However, it is not firm enough to apply liquid foundation.

5. Bare Essentuals kabuki brush: this brush came with the starter kit from BE when the company just came out. Back then the brushes were still soft and usable and after throwing away all the mineral foundations from BE, I still keep the brushes from the kit. It’s been 5 years and this brush is still working fine for me.

Blush brushes

Blush brushes:

6. MAC 129 SE: it’s a part of MAC basic brush set that I got as a gift from my cousin (blogged here). As I mentioned in that entry, the special edition brushes are not as full (or well-made) as the full size ones. The 129 SE I have is almost as good as the full size one and I don’t mind the short handle any bit.
7.Bare Essentuals powder brush: also came from the starter kit mentioned earlier in brush #5. Although this brush is for mineral foundation, I found out it is excellent to apply sheer blushes as well as finishing powder since the bristles are really dense.

8.Slanted brush from Big Lots: can you believe this brush only cost me two dollars? It is soft and full for a slanted blush brush so applying blush to my cheeks is fast. However, it is too thick for contouring, which is a shame since this blush is really soft.

9.Tapered blusher brush from Target: when Target started selling their black handled brushes (and they still do), I believe this brush was around $2.99. This brush gives me unbelievable cheekbones and is good for cheek contouring. However, it is not the softest of its kind. It is probably one of the first five brushes I’ve had and for years, it’s still working.

Eye brushes

Eye brushes: I believe to have more than 10 brushes in this category
10. Coastal Scents synthetic eye shadow brush: I bought this brush to use as a foiling brush. However, it splits to tiny parts after being wet so foiling mineral eye shadow is out of the agenda. This brush is really soft and blends well but does not pack eye shadows well. On the up side, it is really cheap!

11. Medium shadow brush from Target: it is one of the first two brushes I’ve ever bought! I do not use this brush as much anymore because I have many more brushes I can use. This brush is around for sentimental reason: it is the reminder of my humble beginning when I only had two or three brushes and an eye shadow quad! Now, the secret is out of the box: I started out with this obsession like anybody else- in a drugstore and with just a few items. And I think that is the point: you don’t have to march straight to MAC and haul out $500 worth of stuff to start wearing makeup; just a few things at a time and after a year or so, you will realize that you have enough.

12. Large shadow brush from Target: the day I bought my first brushes, I went to Target and bought a medium and large shadow brush. At that time, only Target sold makeup brushes and the black handled ones are quite good. I’ve had them for close to 7 years now and they are still working fine. I used this brush a lot more than the medium shadow one since it is fuller and more blendable. Although the do not pack eye shadows as well as MAC 239, they actually blend quite well. For starters, I do recommend these brushes because they are really affordable (currently $2.49 USD a piece at Target!)

13. Loew-Cornell 270 Maxine’s mop ¼ inch brush: I believe L-C makes the best artist’s brushes ever! This tiny brush is really pretty and can be used to smudge out the liners the way MAC 219 does. Also, it is really cheap and available at Michael’s.

14. Loew-Cornell 270 Maxine’s mop 3/8 inches brush: this brush is very much comparable to MAC 239 brush and costs about 1/10 cheaper. It packs color very well and is easy to clean.

15. Loew-Cornell 270 Maxine’s mop ½ inch brush: I can’t get enough of these purple handled brushes so I got this brush from Michael’s during a sale. Although I initially planned to use it to contour my face, the brush is simply too stiff for that purpose. However, it is a nice brush to apply eye shadow all over the eyelids as it is big and packs color well.

More eye brushes :)

Eye brushes (cont.): told you I have a lot of them!

16. MAC 239SE: also from the basic brush set and I do not use it as much since I have the L-C 3/8. It is my back up brush when the cheap L-C is dirty, hehe.

17. MAC 219SE: I love this pencil brush very much and life is not complete without having a MAC 219. This brush makes smokey eyes application much easier as I demonstrated here.

18. Sonia Kashuk blending brush: beside the L-C 3/8 inches, it is one of the two brushes I use most often. Although I purchased this brush way later than say, the Target black handled ones, this is the one brush I can’t live without. Comparable to MAC 222 or 224, this brush is soft, affordable, and blends eye shadows very well.

19. Loew-Cornell AMM ¼ inch: the Ann’s Mini Mop is the brush that I hunted up and down Michael’s for months! As much as I want the versatile MAC 217, my wallet begs to differ, forcing me to look to alternative brushes (not fuel!) After climbing some rounds of Mount Google, I realized the AMM is a close dupe of the elusive 217. Also made from squirrel hair, this brush has the same shape and size as the 217. The only difference is the price tag: it is $2.99 USD! It packs color and blends well; the same way the 217 performs. The reason this brush always sold out is it is a very common artist’s brush. Also, the price is sweet: you can buy 5-6 of them if you can find them, of course!

20. Sonia Kashuk #10 slanted eye shadow brush: this brush is very old as Ms. Kashuk no long makes gray handled brushes anymore. It is a fine brush that is underutilized at the moment. However, once in a while when I want to make a sharp outer-v, this brush does the job all the time.

Eyeliner brushes

Eyeliner brushes: at some point in this blog, I wrote all about them. I can’t believe I have three brushes just for eyeliner. It’s a sickness, I’m telling ya!

21. MAC 266 SE: another member of the basic brush set, this brush is currently used to fill in my eyebrows since it is thin enough for the job. It is simply too thin for gel liners and too thick for tight lining. However, for eyebrow filling, es muy perfecto!

22. Coastal Scents slanted golden taklon eyeliner brush: I’ve written a lot about this brush so it’s kind of redundant to repeat. However, if you need to know one thing about the brush, it gives you a nice thick line every time you use it.

23. Loew-Cornell 10/0 spot detailing brush: this is my most favorite liner brush of all time! Since it is the opposite of the Coastal Scents one, it gives a very soft and thin line and I love it!

Miscellaneous brushes

Miscelaneous brushes: those that do not fit into the above categories

24. Concealer/Powder brush: this cost me a dollar to Big Lots and it was a dollar well spent to me. It is a multi-use brush: the concealer end (the small end) is good to apply concealer to small spots as well as mineral eye shadows. I love to use this end to foil eye shadows, as this brush does not split like the Coastal Scents synthetic shadow brush does. The powder brush end can be used to contour the nose and it does the job very well.

25. Bare Essentuals synthetic concealer brush: it is a small brush for under eye concealing and can also be used to apply paint pots to your eyelids. This brush also came with the starter kit when I purchased my first mineral makeup set from BE.

26. Everyday Minerals foundation brush: this is an oldest version of their foundation brush. The current version has a bamboo handle and is a bit cheaper. I use it mostly as a concealer although it applies liquid foundation very well.

27. Revlon brow tool: also a thing from the past as Revlon no longer sells this wonderful tool. The spoolie end can be used to comb the eyebrows and eyelashes while the stiff slanted bristled end can be used to apply and blend brow powder.

28. Sephora professionals retractable lip brush: this brush is close to nine years old and still kicking! Sephora makes some really damn good brushes and this lip brush applies lipsticks and glosses like a charm. However, I am not aware if Sephora still makes this type of lip brush anymore.

29. MAC 316SE: this probably is the most underutilized brush of the set as it is really thin to apply lip products. However, it is good to apply concealer to very small places.

30. Loew-Cornell American Painter 4500 filbert #6: I bought it in hope to use as a lip brush but it did not work out that way. Instead, this brush applies foiled minerals well and can be used as an eyeliner brush sometimes.

Wow, it's good to get this post out of my hair! It is a very long post and I can't believe I have so many brushes! Now at least the world knows what type of brushes I use to apply makeup. If you have questions about any of the brushes, feel free to let me know. Most of the brushes have been reviewed and you can find the related articles at the end of this blog as well.

Now, the million dollar question is: Are these brushes enough for me?

You're kiddin', right? I actually have some plans to get about 2, 3 more brushes and after that I will lay low for a while. Owning a brush is like opening a new opportunity to yourself: there are brushes that I wonder how the heck I lived without for so long. Each brush has its own distinction and you should not limit yourself to a certain number of brushes. However, the morale of the story is: start slow! You should not get all the brushes in the world in one day. What you should do is getting some basic brushes to use first and as time goes by, once you feel the need of getting a new brush, you will then acquire it. That way, you own the brushes, not the other way around.

Alright, it's been a long post. I think this makes up for the absence on Monday. I'll come back on Friday if I can and show you something noice :) (that's how Australians say "nice", hehe.)

Take care ladies, and stay gorgeous!

Love,
Your Makeup Blogger

Loew-Cornell Spot Detailer Brush: Best Brush for Gel Eyeliner

Hello my lovely ladies,

It's Friday and I am excited, although spring break is almost over. The weather has been very nice and warm lately and I hope to get to the beach this weekend, if possible. As we all know, I have a weak spot for brushes and the ones I use mostly come from craft stores instead of makeup counters. I find them working as good as the later versions but a whole lot cheaper. As they are used in different types of medium (oil, water color, acrylic, etc), artist brushes are built to last. The one brand that stands out among the artist brushes is Loew-Cornell and I have a lot of them to apply makeup. While most makeup brushes can be found in your arts store, some of them actually originated from there as well. The spot detailer brush that I am going to show you is one example and yes, you can save your pretty dollars and get an artist brush instead.

Top-bottom: spot detailer brush and regular ultra round brush
Image from Fur and Feathers Woodcarving

Normally, I line my eyes with a slanted taklon brush like this one from Coastal Scents or MAC 266. While the previous one gives me a thick line à la Amy Winehouse, the later one is too flimsy to even line my eyes properly. Using gel eyeliner is not even a technique, it is an art! While the end result is crisp and nice-looking, the process is too painful to master. Believe me, most times makeup artists prefer the regular pencil liner over the gel ones. It is very easy to mess up the gel liner application and once you make a mistake, it is very hard to correct.

After spending so many days (and nights) antagonizing over my less than perfect gel liner application skill, I finally came to a conclusion: it's not me, it's the brush that I used! So one day when I walked around Michael's and saw that spot detailer brush I showed above, I got this "aha moment" that Oprah talked about!

Seriously, this brush is the perfect fit for lining my eyes!

You may think I'm kidding but it makes a whole lot of sense to me after seeing the brush. The one and only reason I mess up with gel liner is I do not see what I am doing when a brush looks like it's about to poke my eyeball out! However, the dental pick shape of the spot detailer brush allows me to gauge the process and I do not feel like being tortured anymore. The bristles are soft and dense enough to give me a smooth and fine line. My eyes actually look a lot like Angelina Jolie's instead of Amy Winehouse's when using this brush to make a cat-eye look.

The proof: Coastal Scents taklon liner brush makes a dark and chunky line (top) while my new love, the L-C spot detailer brush makes a soft line (bottom)

Also, the spot detailer brush (or the tight liner brush) only holds enough material to make a short line. Therefore, you need to reload your brush and continue. That way you actually make less mistakes while lining your eyes.

Price: $4.99 at Michael's and you can always find a coupon online.

My rating: A+, go get it!

Actually, Sonia Kashuk used to have a similar brush for a while but all of the sudden it disappeared. Either it did not sell very well or Ms. Sonia K decided to axe it from the line up for something better, this type of brush is very good to use as a liner brush.

My brush collection in a jar

This is when I know I have a problem, y'all! That jar is not big enough! Anyways, I'm going to show you what I have so far when we come back next week, ok?

I hope you'll have a nice weekend. Enjoy the weather and stay gorgeous!

Love,
Your Makeup Blogger

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Adorned with Grace Minerals Shimmer Blushes: Part Two

Hi ladies,

Spring break is here but unfortunately, and as usual, I have no spring break. At the moment, I am taking a break to type this blog entry before going back to do some statistics for my thesis. Sad, I know, but the sooner I finish with this mess the data, the sooner I can write my discussion and conclusion. This morning I realized I'm actually in chapter 4, not chapter 3, as chapter 1 is about the abstract and rationale of my work (woo hoo!) So now, it looks like the thesis is going to have six chapters instead of five and I am aiming for ~100 pages. With my long, winding, Bill Clinton-esque writing style it can be longer but at this time, I'm fine with what I've done so far.

Anyways, remember the last time I told you about the new shimmer blushes from Adorned with Grace Minerals? (You can refresh your memory here if you want.) Guess what? I found the first set of blushes that Franchesca sent me before I moved and misplaced them. I think I have the talent to hide stuff in innocuous places that I cannot even find. But now I found them, I guess it's fair to do a review with some swatches so those who are looking for such information may find this post helpful. Plus I want to have a complete picture of things.

Adorned with Grace shimmer blushes swatch
Picture taken without flash in outdoor lightning

• Dazzling is a very pretty soft gold color that is perfect for highlighting. If you want a pop of shimmer on the apple of your cheeks, you can apply Dazzling over your regular matte blush and voila, a 3 dimensional look!
• Fascinating is a very interesting color to me: in the bag, it looks like a regular sandy color that nobody loves but once applied to my cheeks, it turns into something interesting and hard to describe. It's an apricot-sandy bronze-peachy color that is very close to Tahitian Sand beauty powder from Hello Kitty collection.
• Sensational is another colors that changes shade upon application. In the bag, it looks like a typical sandy brown color but after applied, it turns into a beautiful bronzy color that does not resemble anyway it looks in the bag.
• Lovely is your typical reddish pink bronze blush that is suitable for everybody. I think it's one of those blushes that you can just use without thinking if it matches to anything at all. It's a no brainer blush, I guess.
• Ardent is a shade that's in between of Fascinating and Sensational although it does not look anywhere like the other two when in the bag. It's best used as a bronzer and also is pretty as a bronzer.
• Audacious is a soft apricot-pink blush that is perfect for the cool tone ladies out there. I can think of using it as an everyday blush for me as it is a perfect color with some hints of shimmer.

L-R: Tenderness, Glamorous, Bemused, and Dainty


Top-bottom: Dazzling, Fascinating, Sensational, and Lovely


Top-bottom: Ardent and Audacious

How to apply these shimmer blushes:

I find out the best tool to use is the dual fibre brush since AwG blushes are really pigmented. I use very little amount of blush, about the size of 2 grains of rice, and swirl the brush around to apply to the cheeks. Of course, smiling is mandatory when applying brush as the smile will locate the apple of your cheeks for you.

AwG has the dual fibre brushes for blush application that is similar to MAC 188 brush. I have one that is similar to MAC 187, which is a bigger brush, and it works out fine for me although I would prefer the smaller one.

That's all for today, folks. Now let me go back to my data. I hope you have a good day and as always, stay gorgeous!

Love,
Your Makeup Blogger

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Monday Musing over a Perfume Bottle: Magie Noire by Lancôme

Hi ladies,

Happy Monday! Are you ready for a wonderful week ahead? Well, ready or not Monday is here. Last weekend I browsed the mall for inspirations since (a) I live very near the mall now and (b) that's what women do so guys, please don't ask me why :) All of the sudden, I saw a cute bottle of perfume at Lancôme counter that I haven't seen in such a long time. I picked it up and sprayed a bit to my left wrist then went on with my mall walk routine. Usually, I am very picky with perfumes and have a quite sensitive nose. Most perfumes do not seem to impress me that much and after 2, 3 hours, I get tired of them. So the ones I actually use smell like water or baby powder, the type that is not obnoxious enough to give me a headache.

However, the most unpredictable thing happened after I sprayed the perfume to my wrist: by the time I reached Victoria's Secret, my nose was jammed to my left wrist as I inhaled in the perfume! Normally, if the perfume is intolerably bad, I would head straight to the restroom and scrub it down. Rarely does a perfume make me jam my nose to my wrist like that and I am wondering why.

Magie Noire perfume by Lancôme
Image from Macy's

It turned out the perfume is nothing new to me, it's Magie Noire (Black Magic in English) from Lancôme. My mom used to wear it in the 80s as her night time perfume and I used to think that she smelled awesome! (She still does, by the way, but has moved on from Magie Noire to Trésor and that's another story for another day.) You see, in the 80s heady oriental perfumes were all over the place and Magie Noire is one of them. I used to rub a bit of it on my hair but it never smelled good on me, like most spicy, heady oriental perfumes never do.

However, rumors has it that Lancôme actually changed the formula of Magie Noire when re-releasing it after discontinuing it for a while. As I recalled, the version my mom used in the past was much spicier and headier than the one I tried in the mall. It was so spicy that it could knock an elephant dead from fifty miles away. I remember the air around her (and my aunts and grandma) filled with spice once she applied Magie Noire. And as the name implied, the perfume has some magical and alluring factor in it. Whoever use Magie Noire does look more mysterious and glamorous than usual. And when used at night time, wow!

I always think of Sophia Loren and Brigitte Bardot whenever I smell Magie Noire: glamorous and uber feminine women that exudes sex appeal out of their pores. It definitely is not a perfume for young girls (hence I did not like it when I was a kid.) As it is so distinct and special, I would think of it as a special event perfume to complete the look. Believe me, you do not want to wear Magie Noire when going grocery shopping: it is too much!

Not only Lancôme changed the formula, the bottle also changed from time to time as well. As I remember correctly, the bottle in the 80s was black like this one:

Image from QB

The current version is so clean and simple that I did not recognize Magie Noire at first. Since Lancôme revised this perfume and made it less spicy, it is more tolerable to me and I actually like it since it is very distinct. In a jungle of fruity floral perfumes, Magie Noire definitely stand out. I find a tiny drop of this perfume last a very long time, as most Lancôme perfume do.

As much as it is a fabulous perfume, to me Magie Noire is like an old friend. Whether I like it or not, my taste in perfume is influenced from my mom's choice of perfumes when I was growing up. The 80s was indeed a wonderful time to grow up in and I am glad Magie Noire brought back this perfume.

Currently, Magie Noire is priced at $55 USD for a 2.5 fl oz ETD and that's the only version Lancôme offers. I will probably get it once Lancôme has a round of gift with purchase.

Well, that's one of my favorite perfumes in the past. How about you? Do you have any favorite perfume when growing up? Please let me know, I'd love to hear about them.

Take care and stay gorgeous,
Your Makeup Blogger

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Two More Ways to Wash Your Brushes

Hello ladies,

As I mentioned earlier on Monday about the significance of having clean makeup brushes (and President Obama happened to agree with me, I think), I also told you there are more ways to wash your brushes than just using the brush cleanser. Depending on your situation and amount of time available, one of these two methods may work for you better than the brush cleanser way.

1. Wash with shampoo and conditioner

What I use: Rush Sensories Full shampoo ($4 USD at drugstore) and Aveda Brilliant conditioner ($18 USD)

I hear you groan from the distance already. "What's so new about it?" you may say. Well, to be honest with you, this is not a novel method at all. However, before you totally disregard it, let me explain its significance to you. It only takes a few minutes, much less if you're a fast reader, I promise .

This method works very well on brushes because the products you use to clean and condition them are the same to use for your hair! If you haven't washed your brushes in a while, I would suggest to start with this as the shampoo clearly rinses out all the dirtiness well and the conditioner softens and conditions your brushes back into shape.

To wash your brushes with this method, you need to use water that is in room temperature. Hot water may ruin your brushes while cold water may send shivers to your bones! If your brush is made from natural fiber (ie goat, sable, squirrel hair), you need to shampoo and condition it. However, if it is made from synthetic materials (ie taklon, nylon), you only need to shampoo. The conditioner makes your synthetic brushes feel a bit icky after they are dried.

While it is a great method to deep clean your brushes, it is also a very time consuming process. Washing 30 brushes may take more than an hour and drying thick brushes may take 2-3 days! However, I highly suggest you to deep clean your brushes once a month or more often if you use them frequently.

2. Quick clean with a Wet Ones Antibacterial wipe

A travel pack of Wet Ones (~$1 USD)

When I heard about this, I was like "Huh? Wet Ones? Is it even safe to use?" A thousand of questions danced through my head but at that time, I desperately needed to wash my brushes without using water so I went to Target and bought a travel pack to try. While the ingredients are not that desirable to be used on my face, Wet Ones wipes in fact clean and sanitize my brushes well when I am away from home. Imagine trying to clean a kabuki brush on vacation where the place is hot a humid: the poor brush would not completely dry before becoming damp again. And we all know bacteria likes to grow in damp, moist places, right?

Ingredients
Active Ingredients: Benzethonium Chloride (0.30%).

Inactive Ingredients: Water, SD Alcohol 40, Propylene Glycol, Aloe Barbadensis Gel, Glycerin, PEG-60 Lanolin, Disodium Cocoamphodiacetate, Potassium Sorbate, Citric Acid, Disodium EDTA, Fragrance.

Benzethonium chloride is an antiseptic that is widely used in many industries. Water helps dissolving some water-soluble particles while the alcohol dissolves the organic non-water soluble compounds. Alcohol also disinfects the brush and helps to dry it faster.

To clean your brush with a Wet Ones wipe, simply open the pack, take out a wipe and lay it down. Then move the fibers of your brush back and forth on the wipe until it looks clean to you. You may change the wipe and repeat the process until nothing rubs into the wipe anymore.

Since it has glycerin and aloe gel, I would not use it on a daily basis as the brush will feel tacky. However, for travel, this is a great option to keep your brush clean. Also, you can finish a pack when you are away from home and do not have to carry anything back home.

I hope you are going to wash your brushes frequently. Caring for them will keep them in good shape for you to use in many years to come. I wish you a nice weekend and please spend time to wash your brushes if you haven't already done so.

Take care and stay gorgeous,
Your Makeup Blogger

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Blue-Green Look: Spring Is Almost Here!

Hi ladies,

How are you doing today? It's Wednesday and I am quite elated since the weather is warmer a bit. For the past few days, it has been quite cold in my place and although I get a chance to wear all my knits, I still prefer to wear less layers. Looking back, I haven't posted any FOTDs since New Year and I miss them! They are fun experiments that I happen to love enough to capture in pictures. The lack of the FOTDs may be due to my "less is more" approach: I do not love to layer up a lot of eye shadows on my eyes at the moment. My smokey eyes have about 3 colors and most days I just head out with eyeliner and mascara if I am lucky! But I still miss the FOTDs so last Saturday I decided to crack my whip and played with some colors before heading to *gasp* the public library for some weekend reading materials.

Here's the look and oops, that's a zit on my chin!

Since it's still cold and I want spring to come, I decided to do a pale blue-green look using some eye shadows and a shimmer blush from Adorned with Grace Minerals. The eye shadows last very long: I applied around noon and at midnight they were still on my eyes! Also, they are really pigmented.

What I used:

Top row, L-R: Forebearing, Taupestone, Angelic
Bottom row, L-R: Fearless, Dainty shimmer blush

Close up on the eye

For the eyes, I applied MAC Bare Canvas as an eyeshadow primer then applied the above colors as follow:

• Forebearing all over the lid using the synthetic shadow brush from Coastal Scents: it seems to apply loose mineral shadows better than MAC 239 to me.
• Using my blending brush from Sonia Kashuk, I applied Taupestone to the outer corner of my eyes and gently blended it inward. This creates a definition to the eyes that looks quite lovely.
• Using the same brush, apply a tiny bit of Angelic to the area underneath the brow bone to highlight your eyebrows. Now, if you decide to use Angelic as a highlighter, you need to be aware that this is a very snow white color. Overdoing it may make your eyes look chalky but a bit goes a very very long way.
• Using Coastal Scents taklon eyeliner pre-wet with water, I applied Fearless as a liner. It lasted all day and did not smudge on me!
• Then I finished off with two coats of mascaras.

For the cheeks: using a dual fibre brush (aka the skunk brush), I applied Dainty to the apple of my cheeks. Again, AwG makes some really pigmented stuff so a little bit goes a very long way.

For the lips: this is for Gio from Beautiful with Brains. When I posted the Most Popular lipstick in HK collection and mentioned Sugar Trance on Fafi, she wanted to see the combo and I decided to use those items for my lips.

Most Popular with Sugar Trance
The color is way off!

Here's a better picture of the combo, please ignore the zit!

Sugar Trance on its own: it's such a pretty pale pink gloss, isn't it?

With Sugar Trance, I like this as a day look while Most Popular makes it a better night look

For the face, I used EDM Start to Finish Sunlight as a primer, AwG foundation in Grace 3.5, EDM Abbot Perk Me Up concealer for the under eye area, and EDM Natural Reflects as a finishing powder. Everything stayed put until midnight when Cinderella went home and read a book :)

That's all for today, folks. I guess we'll stick with the tri-weekly publication schedule for the time being. Once my schedule is better (ie, once I graduate), I will post more often. And maybe I will have a post during the weekend: 3-4 posts a week arent's so bad, are they? (I like tag questions a lot lately, thanks to my new friends and neighbors from New Zealand.)

I hope the rest of the week is going to flow smoothly for you. Take care and stay gorgeous!

Love,
Your Makeup Blogger

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Again, the Winner Is...

Hello again,

Today is the day to announce the winner of my 2nd giveaway. Since I did not successfully sent the package the first time around of this giveaway, I have to choose another winner again from my list of email subscribers. Again, I used Random.org Integer Generator and it gave me a number:

Tada, lucky number 8 is the winner! So please, if your email starts with the word pie, the prize is yours. Please check your email and give me your mailing address. I will mail you the prize as soon as possible.

For others, please do not feel sad! I am planning another giveaway soon so stay tuned. And at the same time, please subscribe to my feed. It is free and you get to have the most up to date content of my blog deliver to your email once I post something new here.

Lucky reader, I'm looking forward to hearing from you soon. My constant readers, stay tuned and stay gorgeous!

Take care,
Dao

P.S: My reader Rosa just pointed out to me that this is confusing and I do agree! Because of confidentiality issue and I do not want anyone to be spammed, I decided to release only the first few letters of the winner's email address that she used to subscribe to this blog as an identifier. So again, if your email address starts with the word pie and you've been a subscriber to this blog, you are the chosen one winner.

One Good Habit: Washing Your Makeup Brushes

Hello ladies,

March is here and I can feel spring in the air! However, the weather begs to differ and this week is actually quite chilly and rainy in the Sunshine State. How ironic is that? Since spring is coming, I guess spring cleaning is also in the agenda for some of you. When I first moved to my new place about a month ago, the one thing I did was to wash all of my makeup brushes because only God knows what kind of things they touched during the move. Also, I prefer to have clean brushes to use when I apply makeup for my own health safety. Makeup can harbor bacteria when not stored and washed properly and I do not want to have an eye or skin infection from using dirty brushes.

So if you do not like to wash your brushes often, I urge you, beg you, and badger you into washing them regularly. I maybe crazy to think that there is a connection between the brushes and the user. Mine seem to develop their own personalities after time. Through using and washing them, I feel comfortable as time goes by and they also perform better when being well taken care of. A brush can last for a very very long time. I have some brushes bought since 2002-2003, the time I started playing with makeup, and they are still as full and soft as they day I brought them home. And they are not even expensive *cough*MAC*cough* brushes at all!

And believe it or not, I am not the only one who urges you to wash your brushes...

The 44th president of the United States also happens to agree!
(Photo by AP, caption by Dao*)

"But Dao, brush cleanser is so expensive and I have a kabuki brush. Every time I clean that brush, it takes away half of the bottle!" you may retort.

And I do agree, MAC brush cleanser is $11 USD per bottle. It ain't cheap, considering a MAC mascara is also the same price. However, you don't have to buy them because you can make them! Yes, I said it, you can make them!

The genius whose name is Koren (aka Enkore Makeup from YouTube) gave a very good video on how to mix your own brush cleanser. I always contemplated to mix my own but happened to miss this and that item until I settled in my new place and bought...a bottle of 91% alcohol! The whole process took less than 5 minutes to make and I have a full bottle of brush cleanser to use. Now the brushes are clean and I am very happy!

Stuff that I used: Suave Detangling Spray (~$2 USD), 91% alcohol (~$1 USD), Johnson's baby shampoo (~$2-3 USD), and Ajax lemon dish washing detergent ($1 from dollar store)
Not pictured: water

Instruction: mix everything together and pour the final product in a jar or bottle. Then label it properly before use.

I reuse a water bottle to store the brush cleanser as the jar is small enough

After making the brush cleanser, you can start using it by pouring enough liquid to a glass or a bowl. Just make sure to use that glass or bowl exclusively for this purpose (do not use it to drink water or eat anything!) Then dip your dirty brush in there and swirl around . You will see the grimes being removed from the brush. Once you are finished, remove the brush and squeeze the excess liquid out. Then lay flat to dry.

My clean brushes, ahhhh

Overall, this is a very good brush cleanser. My brushes do feel soft and fluffy after each wash. Also, it is very cheap to make and as long as you have water and alcohol, you can make a lot of batches out of the other ingredients. Small brushes dry really fast when using this method: I can clean them and wait for less than 5 minutes before using. However, big brushes take more time to dry: the kabuki took about a day to dry while the skunk brush (the last one on the right) took almost two days. Still, it is faster than washing with shampoo and conditioner.

One precaution: please do not inhale the cleanser as it smells nasty! Although the other ingredients smell great, the alcohol is not. I almost choke when inhaling the liquid: it reeked! However, once the brush dried, it actually smells quite lovely as the detangler has an apple fragrance.

*Ok, I believe the Prez didn't say anything about cleaning your brushes but I think he would agree with me. After all, he is very good looking and his wife is also gorgeous. Now, there's a lot of genetic factors into that but having good hygene habits does not hurt either.

So please make a change in your life by washing your makeup brushes more frequently. I have two other methods that I will blog really soon. Depending on the time you have and the situation you are in, one method may work better than the other.

I hope you are having a wonderful week ahead. Stay gorgeous and wash your brushes!

Love,
Your Makeup Blogger

P.S: If you like my blog, please subscribe to my feed. Thanks a lot!