Helpful Eye Makeup Pictorials

Do you love those smoky eyes you see in magazines? Love to do a cat eye, but can never get it to look right? I recently came across this article on Glamour.com and it has great pictures and instructions, so I thought I'd share - Five Super Helpful Eye Makeup Pictorials. You can see:

• The sultry smoky winged eye
• The traditional cat-eye
• The smoky metallic eye
• The multi-tonal eye
• The 'natural' eye    

(from India-Jewel Jackson on Pinterest)

I've tried the natural eye and it's so easy to do. It takes just a couple of minutes to do both eyes and it's great for an every day look! Now if only I could get my eyebrows to look like those in the pictures...

Maybelline Dream Fresh Beauty Balm

Continuing on with my tinted moisturizer adventure, I bought Maybelline's Dream Fresh BB 8-in-1 Beauty Balm Skin Perfector. Is BB Cream a tinted moisturizer? Sort of - but it does a little more than the typical tinted moisturizer.

Beauty Balm (sometimes referred to as Blemish Balm) is a single product that perfects the skin's appearance while also protecting it from the sun and environmental factors. Some also offer other benefits - but it varies from product to product.

Here's the "8" in Maybelline's 8-in-1:

• Blurs imperfections
• Brightens
• Evens skin-tone
• Smoothes
• Hydrates
• Enhances
• Protects with SPF 30
• 0% Oils and heavy ingredients

I purchased mine at the local Ulta store - it was $8.99, plus the Maybelline products were buy one, get one 50% off - and I was able to use a $3.50 off $10 coupon. So I got the BB Cream & a lipstick for $9 and change - great deal!!

The store had a display set up in the center aisle, and they had little tester bottles of all the colors. I really appreciate it when a store does that! This product comes in five different shades (most BB creams come in one or two): light, light/medium, medium, medium/deep, and deep. After trying both the medium and medium-deep, I picked the medium-deep. I almost never need anything this shade, so I think the colors tend to run a little light.

In the above picture, you can see that the sunless tan on my hand is a little uneven - and the lighting is a bit off, so the BB cream looks a little on the orange side (it's not).

As you can see, once the product was blended, the color on my hand looks more natural, and the uneven areas of color are not noticeable. This picture is a more accurate indication of the color.

This product is really nice - especially for the price. It has a creamy consistency, no fragrance (that I noticed), it's easy to apply and blend, and you can layer it for more coverage. It is a little on the sheer side, but as I said, you can layer it - and you can also use concealer (I use Amazing Cosmetics' Amazing Concealer in medium beige), and powder (I use a mix of Meow Cosmetics' Pampered Puss Naughty Chartreux & Flawless Feline Fierce Chartreux). For me, it lasted all day with a light dusting of powder, and I didn't notice any more oiliness than usual - as a matter of fact, there may have been less oil. Plus, it did seem to make my skin look a little more smooth - I like that!

Bottom line - I still like Cover Girl NatureLuxe foundation best, but this is a close second. It's a nice product, and I would buy it again.

Aveeno Tinted Moisturizer

If you read my review on the Cover Girl products the other day, then you saw that I mentioned also purchasing an Aveeno product. I'm going to review that product now - it's called Positively Ageless Correcting Tinted Moisturizer SPF 30. I bought this at ulta.com, and the price was $19.99.

I love that this product is in an airless pump bottle! Less mess, the product doesn't get contaminated or exposed to air - it's great. Unfortunately, that's where the greatness ends. I will say that the consistency of the product isn't bad. It's creamy and smooth - there's no separation like you sometimes see in products that have a higher SPF. However, it's too thick and is difficult to blend. It also has a pretty strong fragrance - both a sunscreen smell and a perfume smell - and it's not pleasant. Another drawback is that the color is really orange-y.

Lulu has a different Aveeno tinted moisturizer - hers is called Positively Radiant Tinted Moisturizer SPF 30. She doesn't really like hers either. It's in a different type of pump bottle, and the product is not smooth at all. It appears to be separated and when you try to smoosh it around to mix it, it's a little lumpy. Ick. The color is better, but she has the lightest shade, which would never work for me while I have a sunless tan.

My plan is to return this product to Ulta - and buy something else. :-)

Cover Girl Tinted Moisturizers

I've been trying some new tinted moisturizers lately. I used to love Laura Mercier's tinted moisturizer, but for some reason, it feels a little heavy and greasy to me now. So when Ulta had their Cover Girl items "buy one get one 50% off", and the tinted moisturizer was already on sale, and I had a coupon for $3.50 off $10, and if I spent $25 I got free shipping and a bag of samples - how could I resist??

I bought the Cover Girl Smoothers SPF 15 Tinted Moisturizer in light to medium (they also have fair to light) and the Natureluxe Silk Foundation in Dune. Now I know the Natureluxe isn't really a tinted moisturizer, but it is a lightweight foundation with SPF - and it was on sale for $6.99 (reg. $11.99) - so I wanted to give it a try. I also bought an Aveeno tinted moisturizer, but I'll do a separate review on that.

In the past, Cover Girl and I haven't been friends. I hated the smell of their products, I could never find a color match, the consistency was icky, and my skin was always oily with breakouts. I have to say that I'm glad we can be friends now - I really liked both of these products - and they had great reviews on Ulta.com, so I'm not alone.

The Cover Girl Smoothers SPF 15 Tinted Moisturizer has a really light consistency that is easy to apply. There is just a faint hint of product and it's not unpleasant. I did get the darkest color offered and it's almost too light for me - so if you have a dark tan, this probably won't work for you. Once it's applied, it dries in a couple of minutes, leaving your face feeling like you're not wearing makeup. If you have areas that are uneven in color, you will most likely need to use a bit of concealer or add some powder. The coverage isn't the sheerest I've seen, but it's not the best for uneven skin tones. I did apply a light dusting of powder over it and it lasted all day. I really didn't have any more oiliness than usual. With some added protection from a good (matte) sunscreen, this would be great for at the beach or regular daytime wear. As you can see from the pictures, it looks like it's a pretty good color match - but it's really just a half shade too light.

The Natureluxe Silk Foundation is probably my new favorite foundation. I love this stuff!! It has a great consistency that is easy to apply, and it has a bit more coverage than the tinted moisturizer while still maintaining that lightweight feeling of wearing no makeup. It also doesn't settle into creases or lines. There is a very faint scent, but it smells more like "ingredients" rather than an actual fragrance. If you need a little more coverage, you can layer this a bit without it looking caked-on. Dune is a really good match for me and it also pairs well with Amazing Cosmetics' Little Amazing Concealer in Medium Beige. I haven't noticed any more oiliness than usual - and I do top it with a dusting of powder. This product does only have an SPF of 10, so I wouldn't rely on it at all to provide enough protection from UV rays.

What's your favorite tinted moisturizer?

Everyday neutral brown look...

This is just a quick & easy neutral brown look that I do a lot because it's, well, quick & easy, LOL!

(I know, I know! I'm really pale! I haven't used self-tanner in over 2 months!)

Have a great holiday weekend!!

Meow Evil Eye

I am totally in love with Meow Cosmetics' Evil Eye eye shadow!! Such a pretty color! It was part of their Halloween Zombies Collection. It ended up looking mostly grey on me, but according to the description on the site, it is "dark plum/purple with blue-black undertones and bronzed metallic iridescence".

(I misspelled the shadow I used on my lid - it's actually "Thalia" - 

it was misspelled on my sample baggie, LOL!)

Purple and green everyday look...

For some reason, these shadows didn't photograph true-to-life on my eyes, so I swatched the shadows and was able to get a photo that shows the colors more true-to-life:

I think I'll try this again - but with shadows that have less shimmer. I also think I need to bring the color up out of the crease just a bit more.

Anyone have any color suggestions?

Grey smoky eye

My everyday version of a grey smoky eye...

What are your favorite grey shadows?

Clio & Erato have Espresso...

Another basic everyday eye in neutral browns. I think I should've made the liner a bit thicker along my upper lashline, but I was too lazy to go back & fix it, LOL. I used a couple of Meow Cosmetics' shadows from their new Sunless Sea collection - Clio & Erato (love them both!) - and MAC's Espresso.

If you haven't tried any of Meow's new shadows, I really recommend these:
Sunless Sea - Clio, Erato, Thalia, Calliope
Shattered Equinox - Melancholy
Halloween Zombies - Evil Eye (only available through 10/31)

Green smoky eye

As I've mentioned in the past, I rarely wear green eyeshadow because it just never seems to look good with my eye & skin color. I did a green smoky eye hoping that would work, but I'm still not totally pleased with the color. Maybe I just need different shades of green. I think these greens are too close to my eye color to really do anything to enhance my eyes. But I'm going to share the look because it might work for someone else.

Another smoky eye...

Yes, I've been playing with my makeup again...

I'm not sure how well I like these colors together, but I didn't notice anyone pointing & whispering, so it must've been okay.  :-)

Playing with makeup...

Lately, I've been trying to step out of my comfort zone a little. I usually wear muted, neutral eyeshadows - which is fine - but sometimes, I just wanna have fun! LOL! I also think that it's more "appropriate" to wear darker eyeshadows in the fall & winter. Is that weird? Maybe feeling that way shows my age...hmmm...

Anyway, here are a couple of looks that I did last week:

An aqua/purple look:

And a grey look:

It's funny - the colors seemed so dark when I looked in the mirror - but in the pictures, they just look "normal", LOL! And when they look "normal" in the mirror, they hardly show up in pictures. So now I never know if I'm wearing too much makeup or not!

Have a great weekend!

Blue, purple, & gold...

The other day, I saw an awesome makeup look on one of my favorite makeup blogs. The colors were just fantastic - and I would never have thought to combine them. The original look was so dramatic that I knew I'd never be able to pull it off, but I thought perhaps I could do a more subdued version...

It's not nearly as pretty as the original, but it turned out better than I expected. When I look at the shadows with my eyes closed, I think it looks a bit like a bruise - so maybe the darker, more dramatic colors are needed. LOL! I think I may buy the colors she used...and I'm not going to link to her look because she is so talented she puts my puny attempt to shame.  :-)