Tag Archives: Maybelline

My St. Patrick’s Day Look

March 19, 2015Makeup, TutorialsBenefit, Joe Fresh, MAC, Make Up For Ever, Maybelline, Urban Decay, Wet n WildChelle

I’m a nutter for St. Patrick’s Day. A great deal of my family tree is Irish, I’m overly obsessed with the colour green and don’t even get me started on how much I love clovers…

So when St. Patrick’s Day rolls around in March, I get a bit overexcited. I put up my clover wreath on the door to the apartment, I sign up for St. Patrick’s Day themed races (that post is coming on Friday), start pulling out all my green makeup and clothes and… green food colouring. I liked my green-hued makeup quite bit yesterday so I thought I’d let you know what I wore.

Just the day before, I had watched Sharon Farrell’s St. Patrick’s Day tutorial and decided to take some inspiration from her application and products. I didn’t have a ton of time in the morning (since I did this before work), so I took a few shortcuts.

The look focuses primarily on the halo effect that seems to be quite popular lately. Basically it boils down to a dark shadow applied to the inner and outer corners of the eye and lower lash line, with a brighter colour in the middle.

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Eyes

I first applied Maybelline‘s Color Tattoo in Mossy Green to the outer and inner corners of my lid. I then layered MAC‘s Greensmoke on top of the Color Tattoo and blended through the crease to connect the sides. Be sure to leave a blank spot in the middle of your lid.
On the middle of the lid I applied MAC‘s Bio Green and blended it out intoGreensmoke.
On my brow bone is Wet n Wild‘s Brule.

I applied the same shades to my lower lash line, and ran Urban Decay‘s Black Velvet liner along my lower lash line. On my lashes is Make Up For Ever‘s Smoky Stretch mascara.

Rest of the Face

Bronzer: Joe Fresh Sand
Blush: MAC Warm Soul
Lips: Benefit Ultra Plush Lip Gloss in Coralista

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Armed with green everything, my husband and I hit up Stout in Cabbagetown (highly recommended, we’ve been going there since they opened several years back). I’m glad we got there when we did, because even with very little line ahead of us, it still took us about an hour to get in! Thankfully, there was a tent outside where they were serving a few beers (and dying them green if you wanted… which, OF COURSE, I did). We eventually got inside, had some more green beer and some great food, although we didn’t really stay all that long (we’re not in our twenties anymore, Toto!).

I finished off the night with a couple of glasses of green wine at home while watching Top Gear. (Yeah, the idea of green wine kind of made my stomach turn too, but it really didn’t taste any different!) Did you get up to anything for St. Patrick’s Day?

Hit Pan #3

February 18, 2015Hit Pan, MiscellaneousAnastasia, MAC, Maybelline, NYC, TarteChelle

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Pan porn time! This is my third instalment of products I’ve hit that oh-so-magical pan on.

Let’s take a moment here and just stare at this one in awe. That blush right there? That’s the first blush I have ever hit pan on and I’m more than a little excited about it. (It’s the little things in life…) Tarte‘s Amazonian Clay blush in Exposed has been my default blush throughout the cooler months.

I don’t know what it is with bronzers lately, but I have no luck finishing them up! I used this bronzer for almost 70% of 2014 and I *only* hit pan on it because I finally snapped and stuck a pin in the middle of the product to see how far I had to go. And now I can safely say that I am nowhere NEAR finishing this damn thing up. While I love the shade, I would also love to have some variety in my life! With a price tag around $5, NYC‘s Fire Island Tan is definitely a compelling option since it seems to last FOREVER! Lovely shade too, particularly if you want a bit of a bronzy-shimmer in the summer.

Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow Pomade in Blonde

Oooo this one’s neat. Halfway through 2014 I switched to using Anastasia‘s Dipbrow Pomade in Blonde (I was using an eyeshadow before). And man oh man – this stuff is magical. It makes my non-existent brows finally look like I’ve got hair where hair is supposed to be! The only downside is that using a pomade is a lot more time consuming because you need to be a lot more precise. So although my new brow game has tacked on an additional five minutes, it’s soooo worth it!

Now this isn’t something you see often… I mean, how often do you get to claim that you hit pan on a lipstick? Tragically, I’m a chronic lipstick murderer so I had to depot (de-bullet) this one and throw it into a sample pot from MAC. This was a limited edition shade called Hibiscus from the 2011 summer collection. It’s a *beautiful* shade, but I don’t reach for it often because it now requires that I have a lip brush with me.

Maybelline‘s Color Tattoo in Barely Beige is in my Use Up 2015 bin, but I haven’t been using it much lately since I think it’s starting to dry up. This is the easiest shade to reach for when you haven’t got any time in the morning. Throw this shade all over the lid, blend a brown into the crease, whack on some mascara and you’re good to go!

It really surprises me how long it takes to use up a gel liner. I picked up Tarte‘s black gel liner in March of last year and I’ve been using it non-stop ever since. I mean, if you look at my Makeup Looks you know that I do winged liner at least 4 out of 5 times, so it’s surprising to me how long it’s taken me to hit pan. I’ve been super impressed though, it’s just as creamy and smooth to use as the first day I bought it and it’s almost 12 months old now!

And, of course, I had Kolme helping me out while I took photos!

Use Up 2015

January 19, 2015MiscellaneousBoots No7, Bourjois, Hourglass, MAC, Maybelline, RevlonChelle

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I had moderate success with my Use Up 2014 collection of items, so I wanted to continue the trend this year. I have no desire to restrict myself to a proper Project Pan (and buynothing while on it!), although I really, REALLY do enjoy finishing products. Last year I tried to clear 14 items out of my collection, and I bombed out of a few of them. It was too large of a number and some of the products just frigging sucked to finish. This year, I’m keeping it to a reasonable 10 products, and I’m wayyy more enthused about using these than I was last year’s items. As with last year, these are items I want to finish up and move out of my collection, but they’re not necessarily ones I’m going to be repurchasing any time soon.

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder in Ethereal Light

I bought into the hype of the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powders and picked up the one I most wanted to look like. Ethereal? Hell yes I’d like to look like an otherworldly being! But this does… nothing? I don’t know what everyone else is seeing but this might as well be a mattifying translucent powder. I notice no difference on my face when I wear this, but I bought it, paid an astronomical price, so I may as well use the darn thing. Since I don’t actually use face powder anywhere in my routine, this is actually a super easy step to throw in. And it’s not like I can fuck it up really… since it looks like nothing on my skin.

Barely Beige was one of those limited edition Maybelline Color Tattoos from many, many seasons ago. Despite the mad love that everyone gives them, I’m just not much of a Color Tattoo person. They tend to go on my lids and make them look crinkly – as if I suddenly aged 20 years. Not flattering. They are, however, very easy to use, when I need something to wear without thinking about it (like when I hit the snooze button for an entire hour and suddenly have to run to work). I own about 10 shades, but this is the colour I’m most likely to use up within the next year. It’s starting to go hard on me too, so I’m not even sure it’ll make it the whole year without becoming cement.

MAC eyeshadows in (clockwise starting from top left) Club, Fade, Print and Cork

I somehow managed to finish up four eyeshadows from MAC last year, so I’m doing the same this year.

Club has been a longstanding awesome shade, but I now have dupes in my collection and this is the oldest formula I own of this shade, so it’s time to go.
Fade is sheer baby blue from my teen years that I need to just completely move away from (incorporating this one is going to be painful – this one is the most at risk for not getting used up this year).
Print is a lovely dark grey shade, but it’s almost done and it’s old, so it’s time to say goodbye.
And lastly, Cork. It’s old, I have plenty of browns like it, so it’s time to move on.

Throughout 2014 I realized that I’m just done with lipgloss. It’s too finicky for my liking, so it’s time to clear out what I have. Revlon‘s Papaya is a lovely shade, but it just needs to go. It’s hard to tell from the tube, but I think there’s a little less than 50% remaining.

Boots No7 Instant Radiance foundation in Cool Vanilla, Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum in shades 51 and 52

I managed to finish up one foundation last year. Only one! So I don’t know how the hell I’m going to finish up three… While they’re all quite lovely on the skin, I just need to move these along since they’re liquid products and they’re a few years old. These are ones I’d consider repurchasing at some point, but for now, I need to use up what I have and I have a lot more foundations that are waiting in the wings after these.

Boots No7 Instant Radiance in Cool Vanilla – I was colour matched to this at Boots in Galway, Ireland, and it’s the perfect shade as I move from spring into summer. I seem to only have a small window when I can wear this for it to match my skin, but it’s one of the best-looking foundations I own. Highly recommended. (In general, I highly recommend the No7 colour matching system. It works far better thanSephora‘s Color IQ and it has never failed to pick my right shade no matter what the season.)
Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum in shades 51 and 52 – 51 is far too pale for me, but mixed with 52 it’s fine… but only in the dead of the winter. I’ll trying to get these finished before spring hits otherwise I’ll have to wait until December to wear them again.

Do you have any plans for a Use Up 2015? Or a Project Pan for the year? I have a ridiculous fascination with used up products, so let me know what your plans are!

November 2014 Favourites

December 1, 2014Favourites, MiscellaneousFemme Fatale, MAC, MaybellineChelle

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November is such an oddball month to me. All the excitement of October is over (Thanksgiving, Halloween, etc.) and I flat out REFUSE to start doing anything Christmas-related until December 1st. So November’s that month where there never seems to be a theme. But when I think back, I actually had an awesome time! I got to attend my first blogger event ever and met some really nice Toronto-area bloggers there. I attended my first IMATS and picked up plenty of new products. So for what is normally a “blah” month of the year, this November was actually pretty awesome!

However for makeup… I was really, really bland this month. With the shorter days, I find it strenuous to actually get out of bed when it’s still dark outside. And since I kept hitting that snooze button so many times, I was giving myself less and less time to do my makeup. So the end result is a lot of boring products got used and re-used this month. Maybe something will pique your interest though.

I bought MAC‘s Mystical cremesheen lipstick when the Alluring Aquatics collection came out this past summer because hello… have you SEEN the packaging? But the shade of the lipstick really didn’t fit into any kind of summer aesthetic for me. It came out a little too browny-pink and as far as summer colours go, that was a total no-go for me. But I held on to it because I figured I’d make use of it during the colder months. And I have! Throughout the last month I’ve defaulted to Mystical a lot. It’s an easy to wear shade that seems to match all my “blah” eyeshadow looks lately. And when I needed something “that just works”, this was the product for me.

The next two products were used in conjunction. As I said earlier, I was getting up later and later on workday mornings, hitting that snooze button a good 45 minutes longer than I should be. Maybelline‘s Color Tattoo in Barely Beige is a quick product to swipe onto my lids, followed up with…

some MAC Cork in the crease. I used to use Haux for that purpose, but I’ve since run through that pan so I’m moving on to my next “boring brown shade” in my collection. It’s not the most interesting of looks, but it’s quick, it’s easy and I know it works.

Now THESE are a different story. Femme Fatale‘s Catwalk lashes are anything but boring. These mink lashe are stunning and oh-so-comfortable to wear. There were a few evenings this past month where I got the chance to wear something a bit more interesting on my eyes (aka I had more time to do my makeup than the debacle I encounter every morning before work) and I always opted to wear the Catwalk lashes. Highly, highly recommend these.

How about you? How was your November? Since it’s officially December 1st today, I think I’ll stop being a Scrooge and actually put some Christmas decorations today!

What’s On My Face – Volume 22

August 18, 2014Makeup, TutorialsBoots No7, CoverGirl, essence, Hard Candy, Hourglass, Lord & Berry, MAC, Makeup Geek, Maybelline, NYC, NYX, Revlon, Tarte, Urban Decay, Wet n WildChelle

Another set of makeup roundups!

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Something nude-ish for all your neutral lovers out there!

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Eyes

MAC Ricepaper as the inner corner highlight and to highlight the brow.
MAC Amber Lights all over the lid.
MAC Handwritten on the outer third.

CoverGirl Clump Crusher mascara is on my lashes.

Rest of the Face

Bronzer: Hard Candy – Hula Hula
Blush: MAC – Warm Soul

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The nude lips soooo do not work with this one!

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Eyes

Makeup Geek Mango Tango all over the lid.
Makeup Geek Bitten on the outer half of the lid.
Makeup Geek Creme Brulee through the top of the crease.
MAC Shroom to highlight the brow.

Tarte Black gel liner to create the wing and CoverGirl‘s Clump Crusher mascara is on my lashes.

Rest of the Face

Bronzer: NYC – Fire Island Tan
Blush: Tarte – Charisma
Highlighter: MAC – Whisper of Gilt
Lips: essence – Nude Love

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A fun dark one! As I’ve said before, I usually stay away from dark lid colours but when I do try it out I generally quite like the results!

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Eyes

Urban Decay Darkside all over the lid.
Urban Decay Blackheart on the outer third of the lid.
Urban Decay Nooner to blend out the crease.
Urban Decay Strange on the browbone.
Urban Decay Dust to highlight the inner corner.

Rest of the Face

Bronzer: NYC – Fire Island Tan
Blush: Wet n Wild – Pearlescent Pink
Highlighter: MAC – Soft & Gentle
Lips: Maybelline – Maple Kiss

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This one doesn’t come across as well in photos as I had hoped. Isn’t it strange how that can happen? I really love orangey-reds on my lids and this was one of the first few looks I ever did that really pushed me into using more and more fiery colours.

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Eyes

MAC Gleam all over the lid.
MAC Coppering on the outer half of the lid and heavily through the crease.
MAC Handwritten in the very outer corner.
MAC Blanc Type to highlight the brow.

CoverGirl Clump Crusher mascara is on my lashes.

Rest of the Face

Bronzer: NYC – Fire Island Tan
Blush: Tarte – Charisma
Lips: NYX Butter Gloss – Cherry Cheesecake

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I had been lamenting how much I seem to fail at makeup looks that involve gold, primarily because I tend to combine them with brown. Kalyn showed me that gold just seems to work way better with black, so I decided to give it a shot the next time I incorporated some gold shadow.

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Eyes

Maybelline Color Tattoo in Bold Gold all over the lid with Sleek‘s gold shadow from the Sunset palette layered on top.
I used a strip of tape on my outer lid to create the super sharp edge, then swept on Urban Decay‘s Blackout.
Makeup Geek Creme Brulee lightly through the crease to blend out the black.
MAC Blanc Type to highlight the brow.

I tightlined my upper waterline with the Lord & Berry Black eye pencil and applied Urban Decay‘s Perversion mascara on my lashes.

Rest of the Face

Foundation: Boots No7 Instant Radiance in Cool Vanilla
Bronzer: Revlon Photoready in Bronzed & Chic
Blush: Hourglass – Diffused Heat
Highlighter: MAC – Whisper of Gilt
Lips: Revlon Sunset Peach gloss