Makeup and Beauty Blog | Makeup Reviews, Swatches and How-To Makeup
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Before I became an illustrator/designer, I worked at Dior. It was one of my part-time jobs in college and a rewarding experience that sparked my love for fashion, luxury, and well…Dior.
I’ll always have a soft spot for the brand. I feel like they do everything with an understated (or, an amazingly dramatic!) elegance.
Their Summer 2016 Milky Dots Collection has a playfully elegant edge that I find refreshing for the classic brand, and here’s a look at some of my favorite pieces from the launch.
As much as I love Dior, I can’t believe I never tried the Diorshow Mono Eyeshadows before now!
I mean, I haven’t been totally living under a rock, because I do have an eyeshadow palette or two, and I LOVE the sparkly Diorshow Fusion Mono Eyeshadows. And I’m also a fan of Dior foundations and brow products, and these nail polishes look amazing, so I really have no excuse for not trying them sooner.
This spring Dior released nine new shades of their $29.50 Diorshow eyeshadow, and here are four of my favorites from the line: Gallery, a soft champagne gold with a satin/shimmer finish; Minimalism, a grayish taupe with a satin finish; Atmosphere, a cool-toned purple with a satin finish; and Power, a rich plum with a satin finish.
Here are two sets of swatches in different lighting:
These eyeshadows look pretty standard in their pans, but get them on your skin in the sun? Wow! They’re more complex than they seem, and there’s a really pretty (but subtle) shimmer running throughout. I think they’re great if you like matte shadows but want ones that won’t look so flat. I’m really surprised by how beautiful these eyeshadows are. If you’ve wondered about them, definitely take a look in a store! I don’t think that pictures online can do them justice.
Right now, I seriously can’t help smiling every time I look down at my nails. 🙂
I’ve had negative time for my nails since starting night classes, but the new Dior Polka Dots Colour & Dots Manicure Kits ($31 each; three limited edition color combos available) remind me what a fun manicure can do to brighten my mood. Every time I’m driving or typing, I feel more put together!
I usually do my own nail painting, and I’ll stick to a few classic colors, rotating every two weeks or so, but I get bored of these same colors real fast. So, with these Polka Dots not only do I get two beautiful shades of the best polish formula (IMO), there are many ways to wear them together — or alone! If you can’t already tell, I’m completely smitten.
As part of the 2016 Dior Summer Milky Dots Collection, each manicure kit comes with two 0.23-oz. bottles and a sexy “Dior” branded dotting tool. The dotting tool has also been a pleasant surprise. Now I can easily draw with my other polishes too.
The color combos — in classic Dior fashion — are elegantly intriguing; my favorite being 002 Confettis. The light orange shade is really doing it for me…and I WILL be using it alone in the near future! I’ve had no issues with the lighter color showing up on the darker color either.
Dior nail polishes have an outstanding formula. They have a medium consistency and apply opaque with two coats using a wide brush. One of them, Junon, is one of the longest lasting polishes in my collection.
When it comes to applying my foundation, I’ve had a bit of trial and error over the years. When I first started wearing foundation, I just used my fingers. That was back when the heaviest base I’d wear was a super sheer tinted moisturizer, so anything more than my hands seemed like overkill. Then I played around with flat synthetic foundation brushes but couldn’t avoid a streaky finish. My foundation game really stepped up when I started using the Real Techniques buffing brush.
I got it last year, and it changed my life. I don’t even know what I was doing before I started using it, and I swore I’d found “the one.”
But then the makeup sponge hit the scene, and once I tried the Real Techniques makeup sponge…wow. I put down that buffing brush and haven’t used it a single time since. The makeup sponge was PERFECT. I got a flawless finish and, once again, swore I’d never use anything else.
And I didn’t…for about a month.
But when I started using the Diorskin Nude Air Healthy Glow Serum Foundation (that I wore in this post and reviewed in this post), the makeup sponge didn’t quite work. The Dior foundation was just as thin as the L’oreal one I’ve been using lately, but for some reason, the makeup sponge just didn’t produce the finish I was looking for.
I tried the Real Techniques buffing brush, but I couldn’t get a great finish with that either. Since I’d recently gotten a set of Zoeva brushes, I also tried the Silk Finish brush that came in the Luxe Complete Set, and it worked better, but I felt like it took too much work to blend everything in.
Enter the Sephora Collection #53 brush, which turned out to be PERFECT. It’s a wide, flat brush, so it covers a lot of surface area pretty quickly.
I love that it only takes a few swipes to cover my face, and it applies my foundation with no streaks. I’d bought it last summer, but for some reason (probably something newer caught my eye), I used it like crazy for about a month, then put it aside.
This just reminded me that sometimes there’s a bit of trial and error in makeup… One tool may work perfectly with one foundation but be totally wrong with another. So, now when someone asks why I have so many makeup brushes, I’ll have an answer ready! 🙂
Because Marcella described her foundation routine earlier today, here’s how I apply my foundation:
*A note about this foundation: I really like it but had a couple of hiccups before I finally got it to work for me. I initially bought shade 5 (which I was wearing in this post), and when I first wore it at the store, it looked fine. But wearing it out and about during the day, it felt too orange. I actually think this foundation may oxidize slightly, so that’s something to keep in mind if you’re interested in it. So, I exchanged it for shade 4, which I felt was too light at first, but when I asked my brother if my foundation was too light, he was like, “You’re wearing makeup?” (LOL…men!). And, looking at these pictures, it looks fine. The finish is very natural. I was expecting a more glowy finish due to the name, but it’s really a satin finish, which makes sense given that it’s called “healthy glow”. I like that it’s so lightweight, and considering that I only need 3-4 drops to cover my face, this 1-oz. bottle will last a very long time.
I’m always trying new products, but I thought it would be fun to share what have been my most-used makeup products lately. For me, these are the products that “just work,” and they’re the things I reach for when I want to throw something on my face without having to give it any thought. The colors are just right, and they help me achieve my signature look — glowy skin and pinky/nude lips. 🙂
I am a sucker for glowy, lightweight bases, and I’ve been constantly reaching for PUR Minerals HydraFluid Water Serum Foundation in Tan and NARS Pure Radiant Tinted Moisturizer in Annapurna, which may be a tad too light for me, but it’s sheer enough that it still works.
The PUR Minerals foundation is amazing, by the way. Here are swatches and a full review. It’s available now at PUR Minerals for $39.
No brand matches my skin as well as NARS, and I love that NARS Pure Radiant has SPF 30. This was one of my first high-end foundations, and I’ve repurchased it time and again and will probably continue to do so because it’s a great everyday foundation. It’s available now at NARS Cosmetics for $44.
And, just to make sure my face is seriously glowy, I also like to use Pixi by Petra Glow Mist. It adds glow and helps my makeup last a bit longer. It’s definitely one of my favorite facial mists, and it’s available now at Target for $15.
As promised, I’m back with a face of the day using those Zoeva goodies we talked about.
I did one of my favorite makeup looks — softly, sparkly eyes, glowy skin and pink lips. This is pretty much my go-to makeup look, so I like to keep it interesting by trying out and incorporating new products and formulas.
For my eyes, I used two shades from the Zoeva Warm Spectrum eyeshadow palette (indicated below):
Whenever I try new eyeshadows, I don’t use primer for the first time because I like to get a feel for how they blend and wear without any help. I loved how pigmented and easy to blend these shadows were, but they could have used the boost of a primer, because I noticed some fading as the day wore on.
The rest of my eye makeup was pretty simple. I just used my favorite Too Faced Better Than Sex Mascara and Dior Diorshow Brow Styler Gel (This is one of my current favorite brow products! You can see it in action in this Date Night Makeup Tutorial).
Today was one of those days when I sat down to get ready, and I wanted to switch things up but still keep it casual.
Enter: navy blue.
I’ve got a red-orange earthy palette happening naturally, and I really like how navy blue brings out the brightness in my eyes.
Maybe my jumper inspired it; maybe I just like to be two-toned. We may never know! 🙂
So right now we need to talk about the new foundations in the Tarte Double Duty Beauty collection at Ulta. I recently tried the Empowered Hybrid Gel Foundation ($39), a medium-to-full coverage foundation that promises to smooth, plump, blur, and moisturize for up to 12 hours. Recommended application is with this Double Duty Beauty Foundation Brush & Spatula ($30).
Despite its official moniker, “State of Gold,” Dior’s holiday 2015 collection could have been called “State of Gold and Gray,” because gray makes a memorable appearance. Dior played with the concept of mixed metals in this release, and even though gray is not a color that usually pops into my head when I think, “Yay! Holiday collections!” I think it really works here.
I’ve been wearing five of the 13 pieces in the release, which is available now at dior.com and coming to Dior stores and counters this November, and I’m impressed by the way Dior handles these mixed metals.
But first! — why gray and gold? Well, both are iconic, signature colors at the House of Dior, much like beige and black are over at Chanel.
But with this collection, Dior handles the two colors in what I think are unconventional ways, like what they’ve done here with the eyeshadow palette I’ve been wearing, Blazing Gold. There’s a cool gold in the center next to a gray shade, but the gray isn’t just one of those blasé run-of-the-mill grays. No, it’s a breathtaking shimmery taupe-ish gray with flecks of cool golden micro glitter.
Seriously, it’s so beautiful that I almost can’t take it! — and when you wet it and wear it as an eye liner? Great Caesar’s ghost, it sparkles like 100 Leonid meteor showers. Gimme dat sparkly gold and gray! 🙂
I love funky combos and interesting ideas like that, and Dior does it again with the Gris-Or Nail Lacquer, where they combined gold and gray in the nail polish. I never would have expected it to work — a mix of metallic gold and metallic platinum? — but I think it totally does.
I’ve worn two of the four lacquers in the collection — gold and platinum Gris-Or and creamy, classic red Passion — and I like them both.
And can we just talk about Dior’s nail polish brush for a second? Isn’t it the best thing ever?! Flat and wide, it covers my entire nail from base to tip in a single swipe, and that brush tip is a beast. I love the crescent moon shape; it perfectly fits along the base of my nails, creating crisp, clean lines every time. It never leaves a mess, either, by getting polish on my cuticles.
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