Tag Archives: Makeup Geek

What’s On My Face – Volume 11

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20140224_look1.1

I hadn’t used MAC‘s Club in a really long time, and when I do, I tend to use it just in the crease which honestly doesn’t really show off just how awesome the shade is. So I decided to try something different and use it all over the lid.

20140224_look1.2

Eyes: Primed with Urban Decay Primer Potion in Original (this is the day when this primer suddenly stopped working on me and this entire eye look ended up a creased mess by the end of the day!), then:

  1. MAC Club all over the entire lid right up and over the crease.
  2. Makeup Geek Creme Brulee at the top of the crease to blend out the edges of Club.

MAC Brule was used to highlight the brow with L’Oreal Voluminous Carbon Black on my lashes.

Rest of the Face

  • Foundation: MUA Matte in Shade 1 Soft Sand
  • Concealer: MAC Select Cover-up in NW20
  • Bronzer: Physicians Formula Bronze Booster in Light/Medium
  • Blush: Cargo Medocino
  • Lips: Revlon Just Bitten Balm + Stain in Twilight

20140224_look3.1

My eye makeup matched my shirt. That’s pretty much the only logic I applied here!

20140224_look3.2

Eyes: NARS Pro Primer eye primer, then:

  1. MAC Crystal Avalanche all over the lid.
  2. MAC Print in the outer corner.
  3. Makeup Geek Creme Brulee to blend out the upper crease.

MAC Brule to highlight the brow and L’Oreal Voluminous Carbon Black on my upper and lower lashes. Make Up For Ever Aqualiner in 13 Black to create the wing.

Rest of the Face

  • Foundation: Revlon Colorstay (Combination/Oily) in Buff
  • Bronzer: Revlon Photoready in Bronzed & Chic
  • Concealer: MAC Select Cover-up in NW20
  • Blush: MAC Warm Soul
  • Lips: Revlon Fire and Ice

20140224_look4.1

Although I tend to think of the Laura Mercier Artist 2 palette as predominantly purple, there are a lot of neutral shades in there that need recognition too!

20140224_look4.2

Eyes: Urban Decay Primer Potion in Eden all over the lid, then:

  1.  (all Laura Mercier) Sparkling Dew all over the lid.
  2. Bamboo through the crease.
  3. Truffle to darker up the outer corner.

MAC Brule on the browbone, Make Up For Ever Aqualiner in 13 Black for the winged linger and L’Oreal Voluminous Carbon Black mascara on my upper lashes.

Rest of the Face

  • Foundation: Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum in Shade 51 Light Vanilla
  • Bronzer: Physicians Formula Bronze Booster in Light/Medium
  • Blush: Illamasqua Hussy
  • Lips: MAC Russian Red lipstick with Brick lip pencil

20140224_look2.1

This one showed up decently in pictures, but I can’t say I really liked the end result. The blue shade (Illamasqua‘s Imagine) was sheer, powdery, patchy and just flat out miserable to apply. It needed a insane amount of layers AND it faded throughout the day.

20140224_look2.2

Eyes: NARS Pro Prime all over the lids, then:

  1. Urban Decay Virgin on the inner two-thirds of the lid.
  2. Urban Decay Gunmetal in sort of an angular stripe at the outer corner.
  3. Illamasqua Imagine at the outer corner and blended into the crease.

Urban Decay Virgin to highlight the brow, Make Up Forever Aqua Liner in 13 Black for the wing and Too Faced Better Than Sex mascara on my upper lashes.

Rest of the Face

  • Foundation: none
  • Bronzer: Tarte Park Ave. Princess
  • Blush: Tarte Crave
  • Lips: nothing

20140224_look5.1

Super quick one while I was on vacation.

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 Eyes: NARS Pro Prime all over the lid, then:

  1. (all Urban Decay) Sin all over the lid.
  2. Creep in the outer corner.

Virgin to highlight the brow and Too Faced Better Than Sex mascara on my lashes.

Rest of the Face

  • Foundation: nothing
  • Bronzer: Tarte Park Ave. Princess
  • Blush: Tarte Crave
  • Lips: nothing

What’s On My Face – Volume 10

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More makeup looks I’ve done over the past few weeks ranging from stuff I wore to work, out to a bar or was just headed over to a friend’s place! I was really happy with this set of looks and I hope you enjoy them.

As a note, I’ve switched to NARS‘ Pro Prime eyeshadow primer, so that’s what I use in all of my looks now unless otherwise stated.

20140205_look1.1

I loooove this one! It took me a lot more time to put this one together because I don’t normally get this creative and use so many shadows. (Seriously, if you haven’t noticed, I tend to stick to about two lid colours!) I don’t typically wear this much shadow/liner under my eyes on a regular basis because holy hell is that area ever sensitive on me and I usually end up with very watery eyes. This frustrates me because I realize just how much a makeup look comes together when you shade under your eyes!

Anyway, moving on.

With this, I had one goal: I wanted to use the MUFE rainbow glitter that I had picked up last month. I also hadn’t done purple look in quite a while so I figured this was as good a time as any.

20140205_look1.2

Eyes: I first applied NYX‘s Jumbo Eye Shadow Pencil in Milk all over the lid as a base.

  1. The first colour from a ginormous Sephora eyeshadow palette I have that unfortunately does not have shade names, however, the colour is very similar to MAC‘s Crystal. Essentially, the colour is a very pale lilac shade with a bit of a sheen to it. This shade was placed on the inner half of the lid.
  2. I then used MAC Dame’s Desire right beside the previous shadow, but not all the way out to the corner.
  3. Sleek Sugarlite was blended heavily into the upper crease.
  4. Sleek Highness filled in the outer corner, with;
  5. Sleek Noir at the very edge of the outer lashline to darken up that area.
  6. I then used MAC Vellum to highlight the inner corner of the eye and blended it into the pale purple.

MAC Blanc Type  to highlight the browbone with MAC Omega on my brows. On the lower lashline, I used Sugarlite to line the outer half of the lid, then applied some Too Faced Glitter Glue to the inner half of the lid and tapped on Make Up For Ever‘s Glitters 13 (silver rainbow glitter) on top of the glue. I lined the upper lashline with MUFE‘s Aqua Liner in 13 Blackand used MAC‘s Feline Kohl Power pencil on the lower waterline. And finally, I finished up the eyes with some Ardell‘s 102 Demis and applied  L’Oreal Voluminous Carbon Black on my lashes.

Rest of the Face

  • Foundation: Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum in 51 Light Vanilla
  • Bronzer: Revlon Photoready Bronzer in Bronzed & Chic
  • Blush: Tarte Exposed with Illamasqua Hussy layered on top
  • Highlighter: MAC Silver Dusk
  • Lips: I’m not wearing it in the picture, but I wore Rimmel Apocalips in Celestial out that night.
  • Extra: I used MAC‘s Select Coverup in NW20 under my eyes and set it with Laura Mercier

20140205_look2.1

It was just one of those mornings when I had no idea what to wear and just happened to look into the tub that contains all of my mineralize eyeshadows. Although it’s beautiful, I rarely use this shadow. A word to the wise though, this can apply really patchy and can flake off at a moment’s notice. Beautiful end result, however.

20140205_look2.2

Eyes:

  1. With a dampened, flat, stiff makeup brush, I packed (and I do mean packed) on MAC Blue Flame all over my entire lid. You may will likely need to layer this.
  2. I then blended Makeup Geek Creme Brulee into the crease.

I also lined the outer third of my bottom lashline with the Blue Flame as well. Too Faced‘s Cream Colored Ponies on my browbone and L’Oreal Voluminous Carbon Black on my lashes.

Rest of the Face

  • No foundation, bronzer or highlighter.
  • Blush: Illamasqua – Hussy
  • Lips: MAC – Shy Girl

20140205_look5.1

Obligatory neutral eye look, using the Too Faced A Few of my Favorite Things palette.

20140205_look5.2

Eyes: (Urban Decay Primer Potion as a primer for this one!)

  1. Too Faced Snowflakes all over the lid.
  2. Too Faced Buche de Noel slightly into the outer corner.
  3. Too Faced Woolen Mittens on the outer corner and blended into the crease.

I did the winged liner with MAC‘s Dipdown fluidline. Too Faced Cream Colored Ponies to highlight the brow with  L’Oreal Voluminous Carbon Black on the lashes.

Rest of the Face

  • Foundation: MUA Matte foundation in Shade 1 Soft Sand
  • Bronzer: Physicians Formula Bronze Booster in Light/Medium
  • Blush: Errr no idea. Maybe nothing?
  • Lips: MAC Boldly Bare lipliner with MAC Viva Glam Cyndi on top

20140205_look4.1

This look features Jealousy Wakes, the eyeshadow created by Christine (Temptalia) for MAC. Unfortunately it was limited edition (boy, was it EVER) and it sold out almost instantly back when it was released. It’s a beautiful shade and this is my default look when I want to wear that shadow.

20140205_look4.2

Eyes: (Again with UDPP)

  1. MAC Vex, inner two thirds.
  2. MAC Jealousy Wakes, outer corner and into the crease.
  3. Makeup Geek Creme Brulee throughout the crease.

MAC Brule to highlight the brow and  L’Oreal Voluminous Carbon Black on my lashes.

Rest of the Face

  • Foundation: MUA Matte foundation in Shade 1 Soft Sand
  • Bronzer: Physicians Formula Bronze Booster in Light/Medium
  • Blush: Physicians Formula – Natural
  • Highlighter: Dior Amber Diamond
  • Lips: MAC Petting Pink Lip Conditioner

20140205_look3.1

A shame the sparkles don’t show up more – I was going for a wintry snowfall at night look.

20140205_look3.2

Eyes:

  1. MAC Crystal Avalanche on the inner two-thirds of the lid.
  2. MAC Print on the outer third.

Although it is incredibly difficult to see in the photograph (which is very frustrating to me), I did layer Illamasqua‘s Beguile pigment on top of Crystal Avalanche. Rest assured that it showed up much better in person.

I used KIKO‘s Twinkle Eye Pencil in 06 (I really need to use this more, it’s fantastic) on the lower lashline. The upper winged lined was created with MAC Blacktrack fluidline. I appliedToo Faced Better Than Sex mascara to both sets of lashes and ran some MAC Omega through my brows. (The brows really never change, I’ll probably stop repeating this…)

Rest of the Face

  • Foundation: MUA BB Cream in Light mixed with some moisturizer
  • Bronzer: Physicians Formula Bronze Booster in Light/Medium
  • Blush: MAC Warm Soul
  • Highlighter: MAC Silver Dusk
  • Lips: Nothing – was heading out to eat so I didn’t see the point!

I’m pretty pleased in the makeup department lately… most of my looks have been suitable enough to post on here and I had about 15 or so looks to choose from for this post! Pretty happy with that because sometimes I can get a nasty streak where I don’t like anything I applied at all for several days. (That’ll make for an interesting post some day.

January 2014 Favourites

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201401_favourites

Wow, January. You were a very cold and very bitter month. It was so cold in Toronto that it was pretty much on parr with Ottawa winters, which is not something I’ve encountered in the 12 years I’ve been living in this city. It was so cold that my walks to work induced windburn tears and pretty much dissolved my eyelid makeup most days. I got into the habit of packing my makeup and bringing it in to work to do it there instead of risking complete destruction on the walk in!

Blistex – Lip Medex
Blistex – Lip Medex

The first item in my favourites has been an absolute necessity for me this winter. Blistex‘s Lip Medex is the lip balm type product I reach for when I need a fast acting, thick balm to heal my lips. The consistency is thick and very much feels, tastes and smells like medicated vaseline. I’ve worn this a lot while walking to and from work through the exceptionally cold January we’ve had this past year. There were even one or two days where I was walking in -39C (with windchill)! This balm kept my lips completely protected.

201401_favourite_eyelooks

I’ve had a lot of eyeshadow favourites this past month and the above two eye looks (left side tutorial, right side tutorial) I loved so much that I ended up wearing them several days in a row which is really unusual for me. So the shadows that make up these combos are what made my favourites this month:

L’Oreal Infallible – Amber Rush
L’Oreal Infallible – Amber Rush

I wish my photography skills could do this shadow justice, but they don’t. L’Oreal‘s Infallible Eye Shadow in Amber Rush is the epitome of rose-gold. Not only is the colour beautiful, but the Infallible eye shadow texture has always been fantastic and this one is no exception.

Makeup Geek – Bitten & Creme Brulee
Makeup Geek – Bitten & Creme Brulee

These two Makeup Geek eyeshadows have become absolute staples in my collection. Bitten is a deep brown-maroon shade. I love this in conjunction with L’Oreal‘s Amber Rush. The other shade, Creme Brulee, has done for me what no other mid-tone brown has ever done. I love using this shade to blend out my lid and crease colours and help fade line between those colours and my browbone highlight. I’ve tried various others shades to do the same thing (Urban Decay‘s Naked and Buck, to name some common ones) but none of them were just the right shade and tone. Both of these Makeup Geek shades are must haves in my book and I’m so glad I finally got around to ordering from the line.

Inglot AMC Shine 15 & Matte 382
Inglot AMC Shine 15 & Matte 382

The orange (Inglot AMC Shine 15) and red (Inglot Matte 382) eye look above certainly isn’t for everyone, but it’s my absolute favourite eye look on myself. It’s incredibly vibrant and the orange tones do wonders to bring out the blue in my eyes. It’s just so bright, vivid and happy! A few months ago I tried these two colours out on a whim (I mean really, you wouldn’t normally think to wear luminescent orange and matte red to work) but I quickly fell in love with the combination.

Maybelline – Barely Beige
Maybelline – Barely Beige

Despite loving my eye looks above and wearing them several times throughout the month, I also had a few days where I was like “mehhhhhh” and didn’t want to really have to do anything extensive with my eyes. These were usually the days I hit the snooze button too many times and was left rushing to get ready. That’s where Maybelline‘s Color Tattoo in Barely Beigecomes in. This pale champagne shade is a cream shadow that makes for a very easy eye look when I’m need to get out the door as quickly as possible. I’ll smooth Barely Beige all over my lids and then blend in any brown shade into the crease (MAC‘s Haux, Cork, etc.) for a quick and easy look. I’ve done it so often that it’s a completely brainless operation for me now.Barely Beige was part of a limited edition collection a year or so ago, but there is a permanent shade called Barely Branded that is near identical if you’re looking to pick this up.

Illamasqua – Hussy
Illamasqua – Hussy

Illamasqua‘s Hussy blush wasn’t one I was expecting to love so much. I bought it at roughly the same time as Tweak (deeper, slightly red) and I loved the look of Tweak… but I just don’t find myself reaching for it like I do with Hussy. Hussy is one of those colours that just happens to match most of my eye looks. It’s very easy to wear and brings just the right amount of colour to my cheeks (go easy on it though, these blushes are incredibly pigmented).

Revlon – Creme Brulee
Revlon – Creme Brulee

Revlon‘s lip butter in Creme Brulee has always been a favourite of mine, but I’d forgotten about it over the past few months. This is my second tube and it’s almost close to done as well. This is my perfect glossy shade of nude. It doesn’t make me look weird like Creamsicle does, and as such it’s a completely effortless shade. I love wearing this with very dark eye makeup looks.

Too Faced – Better Than Sex
Too Faced – Better Than Sex

This one is a bit of a weird favourite. I wore this deluxe sample size of Too Faced‘s Better Than Sex mascara a lot this past month (it came in my Too Faced “A Few of my Favorite Things” holiday set and was easy to pop in my makeup bag on those days where I was doing my makeup in the bathroom at work). I love the formula, I love the effect it gives to my lashes, but I haaaate the brush. The brush has an hourglass shape that can be very frustrating to work with. The end of the brush ends up severely coated in mascara, so much so that it requires a lot of wiping off before you use the wand. And something about this wand causes me to get a lot of mascara on my lid (moreso than usual anyway). So while I love the mascara itself, the wand drives me bonkers! And I definitely wouldn’t be able to justify paying full price for that mascara – I love my drugstore ones far too much. As a note, it has a very wet formula, which is what I’m partial to, but I know most people aren’t a big fan of very wet mascaras.

And that’s January done! I’m not usually one to say this as I quite like winter, snow and cooler temperatures, but I’m about done with this particular winter. It’s been too frigid and too windy and I’m looking forward to spring.

What’s On My Face – Volume 9

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New year, new looks! And I’ve got plenty of new goodies to play with that I’ve accumulated over the holiday season!20140124_look1.1

I love this one so much. Everyone has gone insane over rose-gold everything and I think I’m starting to see why. This was a makeup combination that just made me feel like I looked especially pretty. I’m also having a love affair with Makeup Geek’s Bitten and I’m more than happy to use it constantly on my eyes!

20140124_look1.2

Eyes: 

  1. L’Oreal Amber Rush all over the lid.
  2. Makeup Geek Bitten in the outer corner and crease.
  3. Makeup Geek Creme Brulee at the top of the crease to blend the two lid shades together.

MAC Brule was used to highlight my brow. I used Make Up For Ever Aqua Liner in 13 Black to create the wing and applied L’Oreal Voluminous Carbon Black mascara to my top lashes. For brows, I used MAC Omega.

Rest of the Face

  • Foundation: Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum foundation in 51 Light Vanilla
  • Bronzer: Physicians Formula Bronzer Booster in Light/Medium
  • Blush: Cargo Mendocino
  • Highlighter: Dior Amber Diamond
  • Lips: MAC Dark Side

20140124_look2.1

Good grief do I ever love this one too! I can’t claim ownership though, I relied on Shaanxo’s video for inspiration. Anything with neon (not to mention neon AND green) and I’m a total sucker for it.

20140124_look2.2

Eyes: I first applied NYX‘s Jumbo Eyeshadow Pencil in Milk all over the lid and blended it out with my finger. I also brought it down below the inner tearduct as well.

  1. Using the white from Sleek‘s Acid palette, I applied that all over the inner third of the eyelid, bringing it down around my inner tearduct.
  2. With the same Sleek palette, I used the neon green shade and patted that on the center of my lid. (This took a lot of layers in order to get it to be so vibrant!)
  3. Using MAC‘s Greensmoke, I placed it in the outer corner of my lid and tried to blend it as best as I could with the neon shade (wasn’t that easy and I don’t think I was overly successful).
  4. I then used MAC‘s Cork through the crease.

Brule was used to highlight the brow and MAC Omega was used on my brows. I used Make Up For Ever‘s Aqua Liner in 13 Black to do my winged liner and applied L’OrealVoluminous Carbon Black mascara to my upper and lower lashes. For the lower lash line, I used a bit of Greensmoke on the outer corner, then lined my inner waterline with NYX‘s Milk(which actually had decent longevity!).

Rest of the Face

  • Foundation: Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum in shade 51 Light Vanilla
  • Bronzer: Physicians Formula Bronze Booster in Light/Medium
  • Blush: Joe Fresh cream blush in Apricot
  • Highlighter: Hard Candy Tiki
  • Lips: NYX‘s Butter Gloss in Vanilla Cream Pie

20140124_look3.1

This look came about as I was trying to use products that I had bought, but hadn’t used yet. The primary inspiration came from MUA‘s Shade 9 which is one of the most beautiful duochromes I’ve ever owned. Unfortunately, I’m not keen on how the blue turned out, as it applied rather chalkily.

20140124_look3.2

Eyes: I used Urban Decay‘s Eden primer this time as opposed to my usual Original one. In retrospect, that was a stupid idea considering I was using a very shimmery shadow and Eden is a very flat, very matte primer.

  1. MUA Shade 9 Pearl on the inner half of the lid.
  2. Makeup Geek Neptune on the outer half of the lid.
  3. Makeup Geek Creme Brulee in the crease.

MAC Brule was used to highlight my brow with MAC Omega through my brows. L’Oreal Voluminous Carbon Black on my upper lashes with MAC‘s Blacktrack fluidline to create the winged liner.

Rest of the Face

  • Foundation: MUA BB Cream in Light
  • Bronzer: Physicians Formula Bronze Booster in Light/Medium
  • Blush: Tarte Exposed
  • Highlighter/Powder: Hourglass Ambient Lightning Powder in Ethereal
  • Lips: Revlon Lip Butter in Creme Brulee

20140124_look4.1

Heh, I’m not even sure what to say about this one. *I* think it’s rather bland, but looks like this tend to be when I get the most compliments. I wanted to use the Naked 3 palette and dip into a few products on to my “To Use Up” list. I don’t find the end result very inspirational, so when I use the Naked 3 again, I’ll definitely try out different combinations.

20140124_look4.2

Eyes: Urban Decay Primer Potion in Eden all over the lid. All shadows are from the Urban Decay Naked 3 palette:

  1. Burnout on the inner two-thirds of the lid.
  2. Factory on the outer third of the lid.
  3. Limit through the crease

I used Strange as a brow highlight and applied Blackheart as a very thin line along my upper lash line with a faint flick at the outer edge. L’Oreal Voluminous Carbon Black mascara on my upper and lower lashes.

Rest of the Face

  • Foundation: Yaby Foundation in Buff
  • Bronzer: Physicians Formula Bronze Booster in Light/Medium
  • Blush:  Tarte – Dollface and Dazzled mixed together
  • Highlighter:  Hard Candy Tiki
  • Lips: Revlon Lip Butter in Red Velvet with Creamsicle layered on top.

20140124_look5.1

I had to laugh at this one… I didn’t intend for this to come out nearly as dark as it did, or nearly as ridiculously bright on the lips… for a weekend brunch. While I was also wearing workout clothes. Hah. Ah well.

20140124_look5.2

Eyes: Maybelline‘s Color Tattoo in Bad to the Bronze was applied all over the lid, keeping it below the crease. On top of that I layered:

  1. Inglot 152 Shine over the entire eyelid.
  2. Laura Mercier Bamboo on the outer corner of the lid.
  3. Laura Mercier Espresso was used to blend out the crease and pull the shadows out at the corner of my eye into a slight V shape.

MAC Brule to highlight the brow with MAC Omega through the brows. Bamboo and Espresso were mixed together to line the lower lashline. L’Oreal Voluminous Carbon Black mascara were applied to upper and lower lashes.

Rest of the Face

  • Foundation: CoverGirl CC Cream in 110 Classic Ivory
  • Bronzer: Revlon Photoready in Bronzed & Chic
  • Blush: Tarte Exposed
  • Lips: Revlon Cherries in the Snow