Archives for October 2012

Do you ever wet your brush heads when you apply powder eyeshadows? It’s one of my favorite color-intensifying tricks, and I’ll usually use MAC Fix+ or Charged Water. They crank up the color intensity and, if it’s a shimmery product, the shine as well.

Thing is, after taking a wet brush to a pan a few times, the pans can get crusted over, and the shadow itself can harden like clay.

To get around this, or at least to minimize it, when I use a wet brush, I work the same part of the pan every time. So, instead of swiping the brush across the whole surface, I swipe the same, small spot. It still hardens…but just in that one little area.

If you have an eyeshadow pan that you’ve been using with a wet brush, and it’s already hard like concrete, here’s something to try: gently scrape away the top layer using the edge of a spoon, with “gently” being the key word here.

Too much pressure, and you could shatter the pan into a zillion pieces…which would not be good.

Welcome to another fun-filled installment of Share a Tip Tuesday! 🙂 You were awesome in last week’s edition and left a ton of great makeup, beauty and brush tips in the comments. Here are some of the ones I’m eager to try…

The best eyeliner that I’ve found that stays put on my waterline and anywhere else is actually drugstore–Physician’s Formula! The ones that come in a set of three are my favorites. So easy to use and so dependable.
–LILIANE

Here is a tip Lisa Eldridge taught me (bless her for recommending so many amazing products, too) — using eye liner brush for concealing small blemishes. It works wonders actually!
–MARINA

have to say that my favourite brush is a tie between Lunasol Cheek Brush and RMK Cheek Brush S, as I’m only learning up proper eye makeup so can’t really comment on eye brushes (Am still on the lookout for good eye brushes). Anyway, both the Lunasol and RMK brushes are incredibly high quality and fluffy and soft, and work very well for loose powder or pressed powder application- foundation, compact, blush, bronzer, highlighter… anything face-related, really! Who says they should only be cheek brushes?
–STEPHANIE/YUKAESHI

My favorite favorite favorite multitasking brush is the smudger brush from Medusas Makeup. It retails for about $10 but it packs a punch! I use this baby to wing my shadow out, smudge liner for a smoky look, apply cream eyeliner, put eyeshadow along my lower lash line. This is possibly one of the best brushes that I own and I constantly find myself going back to it.
— SARA

It doesn’t matter what brand you have, having at least two good fluffy blending brush is a must. I have two because when I can use one for blending out my eyes, then another for putting subtle highlights on my face, blending out concealer, wiping out my lips, or contouring out small areas.
–KATE & ZENA

Thanks for adding to our arsenal of knowledge. 🙂

Now, today let’s talk about eyeshadow…

Like, what are your favorites (the shadows you keep buying over and over again)? And what about eyeshadow brushes — which are your must-haves? While we’re at it, can you recommend any bodacious bargain shadows?

Knowledge is power, so let’s pool our resources, okay? Leave your current top tips/tricks/techniques/awesome drugstore finds here in the comments, or tweet ’em to me on Twitter @karenmbb using the hashtag #shareatiptuesday.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen