High End Makeup of the Day

I’ve been playing around a lot with some items I’ve had in my collection for awhile. Some are things that I’ve received as part of various subscription boxes (so i didn’t pay separately for them) and some I purchased at a retailer. Since I’ve also been using the St. Tropez self tanner on the rest of my body, I thought I’d do something summery on my face. All of these products are so called “high end” products.





First things first---foundation. Becca’s Luminous Skin Colour Ultra Sheer Foundation is a new product for me. I have been wanting to try this product for awhile so I finally purchased it at Sephora (here). Retailing for $42, it comes in a fairly large 1.7 oz bottle. I got it in Olive, which is about two shades darker than my complexion.. This worked perfectly against my chest since I have been using the self tanner. It’s also really sheer so even if it’s darker than two shades, it’s pretty hard to mess up. At some point I’ll do a full review of this foundation as I think it’s great for summer.





Since the foundation is so sheer, I not only used concealer under my eyes but on a few darker areas of my face. For this, I used Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Concealer in R1. This is another new product that, again, I purchased at Sephora (here). This particular shade works well for my “tanned” look, but that’s sad because there’s only one color lighter than this one so that says a lot about my level of paleness! It’s a good product and at $20, I think it’s a good price point for a high end concealer. I’ll also review this one in the future.





Over that I applied the Nars Light Reflecting Loose Setting Powder (reviewed here), which I already had in my collection. Next up was Bobbi Brown’s Matte Bronzer in Medium 2, which was also from my collection. I like this bronzer because it’s matte and it’s also more red based than orange/brown based like a lot of bronzers. The red undertones are important because when I tan, my skin has a red undertone rather than yellow. That means that this color of bronzer tends to look more natural on me. You can check out this bronzer on Bobbi’s website here. It retails for $38 but you get a lot of bronzer which will last a long time. I used the bronzer to contour my cheeks, along the edges of my jaw and at the top of my forehead and down the middle of my nose.

As for blush, I had received a full size Be a Bombshell Blush in Sweet Cheeks as part of one of my subscription boxes. Since I had never even heard of the brand, I was anxious to try it. This is a really nice blush and I’m looking forward to trying more of their products. Sweet Cheeks retails for $16 and you can see more here.





Now on to the eyes. I used Mac’s Blanc Type powder shadow (from my collection) from the last line to the eyebrow. In the crease, I used Nars Cosmetics’s Ondine shadow, a plummy browny yummy color. Both of these colors are great for everyday wear and look good with all eye colors.








For mascara, I used The Balm’s What’s Your Type? Body Builder mascara (here for $19) and I also used The Balm’s Schwing black liquid eyeliner (here for $17).






Last but not least, I used a Paula Dorf eye pencil in Baby Eyes Enhancer on my lower rims. I received this in a subscription box but this retails for $20 (I also like this product).

Finally, to finish things up, I used Make Up For Ever’s Aqua Rouge in 20 Baby Pink. I love this product and must review it soon!









That’s my latest summer “high end” face. What do you think? Have you used any of these products? Are there any you want to try?

A Vintage Spring Look

My favorite makeup artist, Lisa Eldridge, recently posted a makeup video that she calls “Baby Bardot.” It shows a young model with a beautiful, soft vintage makeup look a la Brigitte Bardot. Lisa also did this look on Kate Winslet for UK Harper’s Bazaar (pictures here). At the time, I thought the look was absolutely lovely and that there is no reason why a woman over 40 couldn’t look just as good!

The high points of this makeup are flawless skin with a matte finish, muted colors and bold, black eyeliner that has been “winged” out to the sides.
The face is flawless and matte so I used Revlon’s Colorstay Makeup (the one for dry skin) and combined two colors: Ivory and Buff. I applied it with a Bobbi Brown flat foundation brush in thin layers. When I was satisfied with the finish, I applied It Cosmetics Bye Bye Under Eye concealer in a combination of Light and Medium under my eyes, around my chin and where ever I had any dark spots. Then I powdered with Revlon’s Nearly *aked pressed powder in Fair.

For Eyes, I happened to have the same eye shadow palette that Lisa uses---Pixi’s Shade Quartette in Shades of *ude (I bought it at Target). The lightest shade was applied on the lid and almost up to the brows. Then I used the brown shade directly opposite the lightest shade in the pan in the crease. I also applied it under my lower lashes. This Pixi quad is lovely and the colors really last.



As Lisa explains in the video, the liner is thicker than the liner of the early 1950s but not as heavy and thick as in the 1960s. I used Bobbi Brown’s Gel Liner in Black with a very fine liner brush to line the eyes and make the “wing.” You can see that the liner is thinner closer to the nose and then in the middle of the eye it begins to thicken to meet the end of the tail, forming a triangular wing. Then I used two coats of Trish McEvoy’s High Volume Mascara in Jet Black. Lisa uses both mascara and individual false lashes in the video but I skipped the lashes. On my brows, I brushed on an Espresso brow gel by Anastasia Beverly Hills to cover the white hair in my eyebrows.





I can see that I didn’t quite get the left eye as even as I wanted but you get the idea! If you’re like me, your eyes may be getting more and more hooded as you age. That’s a really normal part of the aging process (or you may have been born with hooded eyes) and at some point, I may decide to do an eye lift. For now, I adjust my eye makeup by avoiding shiny shadow anywhere near the brow bone and bring my crease color up a little higher to help the area recede. When doing a winged eye liner, I also have to draw the wing a little bit longer to get the same impact. Here’s a better view of my hooded eyes:



You’ll be able to tell if your eyes are hooded when you look straight in the mirror. If you can’t see your eyelids, your eyes are hooded! You can also scroll up to the first picture and see that my eyelids are covered when I’m looking directly at the camera. It’s not a big deal to me and I just adjust what I’m doing to compensate for it.

The rest of my face is dusted with Revlon’s Photo Ready Matte Bronzer in Bronzed & Chic under the cheekbones and then Physician’s Formula Se*y Booster blush in Natural. I also used a Mac lip pencil in Subculture all over the lips and then OCC Cosmetics’ Lip Tar in Ophelia to finish it off. This is a beautiful, soft look that will look great on most people, adjusting for skin tones. At some point, I’ll try it with black/brown mascara and a dark brown eyeliner instead of the black.

Do you have any favorite looks for Spring?

Product Review: OCC Liptars in Coral/Natural Colors

I wrote how much I love OCC Liptars when I reviewed the pink colors in my collection here. They are so long lasting and beautiful that I just have to show you the corals. Click below for swatches and my thoughts!

Product Review: Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Lip Tars: Pinks

Super long lasting lip color!!!

Lip tars from left:  Digitalis, Narcissus, Pageant, Ophelia, Memento

Last summer, I started reading all about Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics (O.C.C.) and their incredible lip colors. Since one of my pet peeves is lipstick that disappears quickly, I thought I should check these out. At the time, I was on a quest for a long lasting red lipstick as nothing I already had lasted more than an hour or two at the most. Enter O.C.C. lip tars!

My first lip tar was their aptly name red, NSFW, a bright, beautiful red. Depending on what I was doing (drinking, talking, eating or just  quietly going about my day), this color lasted anywhere between 4 and 9 hours on my lips. No lie!!! As a result, I HAD to have more, therefore, I went out and stocked up on a bunch of colors and thus, the first of my blog reviews for O.C.C. lip tars. This review will focus on the pinks in my collection. These are, by no means, all of the pinks that O.C.C. has released, but just the ones that I have purchased.