Makeup Tips/How To

Despite Our Differences (in Color Temp), I’m Warming Up to the MAC Me Over Collection’s Lady Grey Quad

August 29th, 2011 by Karen 23 Comments

mac me over lady grey

One of my favorite pieces from the new MAC Me Over collection (on counters now) turned out to be something I never expected to like.

“How cool!” I said the first time I spotted the Lady Grey quad’s greenish gray, and I meant it both in terms of wow factor, as I thought the shade was subtle, but interesting and different, and color temp, because like many of the other colors in Icelandic Cool, the sub-collection to which Lady Grey belongs, it leans cool.

Right away the color, and the other shades of green, gray, beige, white, taupe and purple that comprise Icelandic Cool, melted my heart, but I thought I’d have a difficult time getting the cool-toned shade to cooperate with my warm-toned skin.

Still, it didn’t stop me from trying.

mac Lady Grey Eye Shadow Quad X 4

mac Lady Grey Eye Shadow Quad X 4
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Be a Good Student of Travel Makeup with a Clear Pencil Case

August 9th, 2011 by Karen 18 Comments

A clear pencil case for travel makeup

Stop letting lost tubes of lipgloss languish at the bottom of your luggage on trips. Next time you travel, keep them and the rest of your makeup safe and sound (and organized) in a clear pencil case. With back-to-school season coming up, you might even be able to find them on sale. 🙂

I’d been using Urban Decay’s voluminous QuinceaÃ±era makeup bag to store my face paint on my last couple of trips because of how wonderfully cute and spacious it is (fits all of my foundation, eyeshadows, brushes AND the kitchen sink), but it was a little tricky locating specific products buried within the roomy bag.

I usually ended up just dumping the contents on the bed and sifting through the pile. Not a great system, and it was only matter of time before something rolled off the bed only to get accidentally left behind.

Enter the see-through zippered pencil case. It’s clear, so I can easily spot whatever I’m looking for, and it’s built for travel.

Well…it’s built for binders, but it works great for travel. 🙂
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Being Bold with One Eyeshadow at a Time, in This Case NARS Outremer

July 11th, 2011 by Karen 147 Comments

Going bold with your eye makeup by getting back to basics can be a lot of fun. Believe it or not, dramatic looks like this blue cat eye starring NARS Outremer Eyeshadow ($23), my new favorite blue, don’t necessarily need to involve boatloads of products.

nars fall 2011 outremer single eyeshadow

This particular cat eye packs an edgy wallop, thanks in large part to Outremer, and only requires a single shadow, a few tools, a positive attitude and a good chunk of time (for me, from 20-30 minutes). I went with bold, blue Outremer here, but you could just as easily use another color you happen to have on hand, like a yellow, orange, pink or green. If you decide to try your hand at a bold look featuring a different eyeshadow single, I’d love to hear about it in the comments. 🙂

Now, I hope you’re ready. Here are the steps I followed this time around…

1. Brushes with greatness

Brushes used, from the left: the MAC 266 Small Angle Brush, MAC 219 Pencil Brush, MAC 239 Eye Shader Brush and the MAC 217 Blending Brush

First things first, I cleared a space to work in at the bathroom counter and gathered the following eye makeup brushes, each of which serves a different purpose in the look.

A Small-Angle Brush — A great multipurpose brush. I use them for everything from lining my lash and water lines to filling in my brows. In this case I used the MAC 266 ($19.50) to outline the initial shape of the cat eye and to line my water line.
A Domed Blending Brush — Another awesome multitasking brush. Great for applying powder or cream eyeshadows, blending and for applying concealer. I like the MAC 217 ($17.50) and used it here to apply color to my lids and in the crease. I also used it to blur out the edges of lines and the overall shape of the cat eye.
An Eye Shader Brush — A solid performer when it comes to applying dense amounts of eyeshadow, and it excels with loose powders and pigments. I used it here (the $24.50 MAC 239) to apply color on my lids and along my lower lash line.
A Pencil Brush — Great for detailed work. Here I used the pointy tip on the mighty MAC 219 ($24.50) to add dense, concentrated color on my lids and lash lines.

2. Prepare to prime

Next, I prepared my lids for the look by applying a primer. I like the results I get from with NARS Pro-Prime Smudge-Proof Eye Shadow Base ($24). I think it really accentuates colors while extending wear time and preventing creases.
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Kindergarten Eye Tricks: Eye Makeup to Connect the Dots

June 25th, 2011 by Karen 9 Comments

Written by Sam

I hope you have a great day at school today! Teacher tells me you’re going to connect the eye makeup dots in today’s guest post, with a little help from Sam.

Kindergarten eye tricks

Eye makeup can be hard. Like, really hard. So hard, as a matter of fact, that sometimes it makes me wish I were back in grade school, painting with my fingers and coloring outside the lines.

Ah…good times. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if eye makeup could be that easy and simple? Well, today it is, because we’re time traveling back to kindergarten to connect the makeup dots.

Connect the dots

Meow To be honest, I never really liked connect the dots. I’d always bring that giant book home with me, the one with the thin pages that ripped whenever I tried to erase on them, to find that someone else from class had already done at least one of them, and then my whole experience would be ruined. Gah!

But today, that’s not important. What is important are the skills we learned connecting those dots.

Let’s start with a question: have you ever tried to draw an even, gorgeous line with liquid eye liner but just weren’t able to do it? Well, it happens to me almost every time, so rather than trying to draw one continuous line across the entire lash line, let’s start by making small dots across it, with one right at the inner corner, a few along the way, and one directly at the outer corner (I usually make about 6-10 dots per eye, depending on the size of the person’s eyelid).

(You might even number your dots, and who knows? — maybe start a new couture trend.)

After letting the dots set for a few seconds, connect them, one by one, until you reach the outer corner. By almost sketching with a series of very small dashes that eventually coalesce into a single, solid line, you can reduce the impact of an unsteady hand, ensuring an even line, and maintain a consistent line width/thickness. Conversely, you have more control over where you want the line to begin thickening, if at all.

Grab a straightedge

Straightedge

Now that we have our liner laid down on our lash line, we can even go beyond it. It’s easy to go wrong with a winged liner look that ends up pulling the eyes down. All it takes is not aiming the tail correctly or getting the line weight just right.

No worries. Grab a note card or other thick piece of paper because we’re going to use the straight edge as a guide.

Place the edge so that it touches the outer corner of one eye, and angle it so that it passes pretty much through the middle of the indent at your temple. For most people, this results in a very flattering placement that opens and widens the eyes. Now, draw your liner of choice along this edge, moving the tip in ever so slightly as you move along the edge, thus thinning and eventually bringing the line to a point (rather than a blunt end).
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5 Summer Staples: Eye Makeup Essentials to Beat the Heat

June 23rd, 2011 by Karen 59 Comments

Summer, summer, summer time!

Orange eyeshadow? Come to mama. Teal eyeliner? I’m all over it. You don’t have to ask me twice when it comes to trying trendy eye makeup. The answer is the same emphatic “Yes!” I’d give to an up-close-and-personal search from Detective Elliot Stabler on Law & Order: SVU.

But while outrageous eyes can be a blast, this girl’s gotta have her steady staples, too. Tried-and-true eye makeup essentials, like the five summer staples below, can keep your eyes fly when the temperature climbs.

1. Waterproof mascara

urban decay cannonball review brush
Urban Decay Cannonball Waterproof Mascara

Don’t let melting mascara ruin your chances with that hot, muscled, baby-faced guy in your summer school statistics class — the one you thought was adoring you from across the room but later realized was probably wondering how you ended up with two black eyes.

Escape that fate with an industrial-strength waterproof mascara like Urban Decay’s Cannonball ($20). It’s a little pricey, but it stretches my lashes to the limit, resisting sweat and water like a champ (I’ve been wearing it in all my pictures as of late).

2. Eye primer

NARS Pro Prime Smudge-Proof Eye Shadow Base

Whether I’m applying a single eyeshadow or five, I reach for eye primers to protect my work from fading, creasing and melting in the heat. My favorite right now? — NARS Pro Prime Smudge-Proof Eye Shadow Base ($24), and I also like Urban Decay Primer Potion ($19) and Too Faced Shadow Insurance ($18).

I haven’t had the chance to try it yet, but Cover Girl’s $8 Intense Shadow Blast in Beige Blaze sounds like a great drugstore option. MBB reader Erin says it intensifies colors and keeps eyeshadows locked down all day long (thanks, Erin!).
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Go from Day To Night in a Flash with the MAC Bloggers’ Obsessions Collection

June 22nd, 2011 by Karen 105 Comments

mac bloggers obsessions

Never work for a cat. I’m serious. Mine has me running around like a chicken with its head cut off this week, and I’ve been puting in some long 14-hour days, dashing from meetings with kitty modeling agency executives, to working lunches, to Petco on behalf of Tabs, who just broke another cat toy, and apparently replacing it is “the company’s top priority.” WHATEVER, DUDE!

tabs broke his toy
Edward Scissorpaws strikes again!

What’s that old saying? When it rains it pours? I try to remember that this surge of stuff on my calendar is only temporary and something we all go through from time to time. We’re busy gals, after all, with places to go, pets to appease and shoes over which to obsess. 🙂

Michael Kors Braided Chain Platforms

Speaking of obsessions, I haven’t had a lot of time between errands and events to do my makeup this week, so I’ve been trying a new day-to-night routine using a mix of MAC Bloggers’ Obsessions items and pieces from the permanent collection. Here’s a look that with a few simple tweaks can take you from work to dinner/drinks.

mac bloggers obsessions
MAC Bloggers’ Obsessions products from the left: Eyeshadow in Hocus Pocus ($14.50), Lipglass in Evolution Revolution ($14.50), Lipglass in Caqui ($14.50) and Lipglass in All Of My Purple Life ($14.50)

mac bloggers obsessions
Additional MAC products clockwise from the pan on the lower left: Eyeshadow in Woodwinked ($14.50); Eyeshadow in Soba ($14.50); Lipstick in Impassioned ($14.50); Blush in Sunbasque ($19.50); Eye Kohl in Feline ($14.50, please note this is a limited edition color; Eye Kohl in Smolder also works); Lip Pencil in Subculture ($13); Lip Pencil in In Synch ($13)

As a bonus, you won’t have to haul your entire makeup collection around to switch things up — a HUGE plus if you’re already loaded down with technology (i.e. cameras, laptops and cell phones with 800 pictures of your cat).

Day look

When I have meetings and errands to run during the day, I like simple, conservative looks designed to subtly enhance my features while drawing just a little attention to my face. In a professional environment, I want people to see me, and not the multi-colored, neon eyeshadow on my lids, you know?

A look with slightly smokey eyes, soft matte cheeks and a nude lip fits the bill.

mac bloggers obsessions
Blush in Sunbasque on cheeks; Lipglass in Evolution Revolution atop Lip Pencil in Subculture on lips

mac bloggers obsessions
Eyeshadow in Soba in crease; Eyeshadow in Woodwinked on inner half of lid; Eyeshadow in Hocus Pocus on outer half of lid
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Go Drag or Go Home: A Mascara Combo for Dramatically Longer, Thicker Lashes

May 20th, 2011 by Karen 55 Comments

Well look at you, eagle eye cutie pie. 🙂 You discovered my latest lash secret. I’ve been asked a few times over the past couple of days about what I’m wearing on my lashes, and yes, I’ve been trying something new.

When it comes to lashes, for me it’s GO DRAG OR GO HOME! I’m flat-out wild about that dramatic false lash look, ya know? — the longer and more voluminous, the better. That’s why I’m so stoked about my current combo, which adds mad crazy length and lots of thickness at the base. And the best part? I discovered it by accident!

One day last week I had on two layers of Urban Decay Cannonball Waterproof Mascara ($20) on my top lashes, and one on the bottom. Even though Cannonball smudges a tad, it stretches my lashes to their lengthening limits and cures the curl from my lash curler (Shu know the one), so I readily accepted the tradeoff.
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How to Remove Excess Mascara from Your Eyelids Without Messing Up Your Makeup

May 18th, 2011 by Karen 38 Comments

Don’t you hate it when you finish your eye makeup and then go to put on your mascara and accidentally swipe the brush against your lids or your lower lash line?

Shoot!

Maybe it’s just because I’m uncoordinated and always in a hurry, but I do it all the time. To clean up the extra bits and bobs of mascara along my lower lash lines and lids that these mascara mishaps cause, I used to lightly dab a Q-tip moistened with makeup remover on the trouble spot(s), but I was never in love with that method. It was unprecise (like wielding a club in my clumsy hands), and whenever I used it I usually ended up also disrupting my eyeshadow, primer and concealer, too.

Yesterday I tried a new technique, and so far I love the results! Thankfully, it only took, oh, 22 years of wearing makeup to figure this out. Better late than never, I suppose. 🙂

Now, I dampen a thin concealer brush with eye makeup remover (you could even moisten the brush with a makeup remover wipe), and then carefully use the brush to precisely apply makeup remover to the problem areas. Then, using a pointed eyeshadow eye brush like the MAC 219, I lift away any excess product now loosened up by the remover.
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