Frosty purple smokey eyes

Bright pink/raspberry

Products used

Face:
GOSH Velvet touch foundation primer

MAC Pro Longwear Concealer NC 20Max Factor Lasting Performance 101 Ivory Beige

Sleek Face Form Contouring and blush palette 373 Light

Beauty 88 Concealer Palette in Medium (conturing)

Vichy Dermablend Setting Powder (loose)

Eyes:

Catrice Kohl Kajal 040 White

Sleek I Divine Acid Palette

Sleek I Divine Oh so Special Palette

Sleek I Divine Ultra Matts v2 Palette

L’Oréal Gel Intenza Eyeliner 01 Pure Black

L’Oréal Volume Million Lashes So Couture mascara

Max Factor Clump Defy by false lash effect mascara

False Demi eyelashes

Brows:

Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow Pomade Chocolate

Lips:

Maybelline Super Stay 24 Color 195 Raspberry

L’Oréal Infallible Lipstick 121 Flawless Fuschia

50's pin up: Neutral eye liner

I have already posted some pin-up/vintage looks. This one is specifically 50's look. Only with bit of a modern twist. What makes it 50's ? All over matt first of all. I only used matt eye shadows, no highlighters, no shimmer what so ever. Second thing is medium thick eye liner. In 50's was the eyeliner not so crazy yet, it was applied only to top lash line and extended a bit. The brows used to be much thicker than at 40's, and quite defined, but still bit further from each other, higher and more arched then I made them for this look. And the lips - all time classic - bright red.

I started with my eyes. I applied base (Paint pot Soft Ochre), then I applied light beige eyeshadow all over the lid and bit darker beige eye shadow into crease. Then I applied bit of a dark brown eyeshadow into outer V to get a little bit more definition there. I blended that all together for smooth transmission. I applied same eye shadows on my lower lid as well. If you have big or round eyes, you can skip this step.Then I applied white eye pencil into inner corners and into waterline. I smudged it with my fingers a bit (at the inner corners) and I applied matt white eyeshadow on top of it. Then I moved on to liner. I didn't make it very thick all over the lash line, I was concentrating mostly at outer part and elongated flick at the end. I tried to make it as sharp and bold as possible. Then I highlighted my brow bone with matt white eyeshadow to make my brows more defined. Then I moved on to my face, I applied primer, concealer under the eyes and foundation. I set everything with loose powder and I did bit of a contouring under my cheekbones. I didn't apply any blush. Then I filled in my brows with dipbrow pomade and I applied 3 coats of mascara on my lashes (top and bottom). I finished off with bright red lipstick.


Products used:
Eyes:

MAC Paint pot Soft Ochre

Beauty UK eye shadow Palette no.7 Naked

Sleek Ultra Matts v2 palette

L’Oréal Gel Intenza Eyeliner 01 Pure Black

Catrice Kohl Kajal 040 White

Max Factor Fusion False lash effect volume & length

L’Oréal Volume Million Lashes So Couture mascara

Brows:

Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow Pomade Chocolate

Face:

GOSH Velvet touch foundation primer

MAC Pro Longwear Concealer NC 20

Max Factor Lasting Performance 105 Soft Beige

Vichy Dermablend Setting Powder (loose)

Sleek Face Form Contouring and blush palette 373 Light

Lips:

Maybelline Super Stay 24 Color 510 Red Passion

Taupe cut crease & mauve lips

It has been a while I created a look with neutral colors and I thought now would be a time for it - after all previous blues, bronzes, browns and greens looks on this blog.
I don't really like looks using neutral colors because I find them boring. I like bright colors or smokey eyes much more. But I took it as a challenge to create look using neutral colors but still being fun, dramatic or outstanding - call it as you want to. This is what I came up with.
I was using entirely my W7 in the Buff palette (which is exact dupe of Urban Decay Naked 2 palette only 4 times cheaper:-) so who wouldn't buy it?). The shades in it are beautiful, my absolutely most favourite is the matt taupe brown/mauve shade. I used mainly this shadow for this particular eye look.

First I applied eyelid primer (Paint pot Soft Ochre by MAC) all over the lid. Then I applied matt skin color shade from In the Buff palette all over the crease to make smooth texture for following shadows. Then I started applying taupe brown shadow into my crease and I blended it very well upwards (towards my brow bone) with bit of that matt skin color shade I used earlier. I made the outer V darker with black shadow blended with dark taupe one (right next to it in the palette). When I was done blending and making transmission between shadows smooth I applied white kohl pencil into inner 2/3rds of my lid (the moving part) and I applied some into my inner corners as well. I blended that pencil a bit with my finger and afterwards I applied shimmery white/pink eyeshadow on top of it. This step made the cut crease more defined.
I applied the same white pencil onto my waterline. Then I moved on to the liner. I applied quite thick line from my very inner corners to outer corners where I extended it towards brows to achieve elongated eye effect. Then I put white pencil right under this extended part to make it even more defined. Then I applied that same matt taupe eyeshadow on my lower lid as
well. Then I made second wing (line) with black eyeshadow. After I was done with shadows and eyeliner, I put on 3 coats of mascara to my top lashes. I was thinking about using false lashes but I decided not to use them - my lashes are quite thick and long so I don't need false lashes anyway.
I moved on to rest of the face, after applying primer first, I used concealer under my eyes to cover all the dark circles. Normally I put a little drop on back of my hand and I apply it on my skin just with using fingers. The leftover concealer I mixed with foundation and I apply it all over my face using. Then I did quite heavy contouring using very dark concealer and this was actually the first time I also use contouring on my nose as well. For highlighting I used very light foundation stick and I set everything with compact powder. Then I did my brows using Anastasia Beverly Hills dipbrow pomade. As a last I did my lips. I mixed 2 shades on back of my hand and I applied them on the lips with brush - this way you can mix up any colors you want.

Products used:
Face:

GOSH Velvet touch foundation primer

Max Factor lasting performance in shade 105 soft beige

MAC Pro Longwear Concealer NC 20

L’Oréal True Match powder W3 Golden Beige

Sleek Face Form Contouring and blush palette 373 Light

Beauty 88 concealer palette

Vichy Dermablend Ultra Corrective Foundation Cream-Stick 12 Opal

Blush Sleek Sugar 364

Eyes:

MAC Pro Longwear Paint Pot in shade Soft Ochre

W7 In the Buff Palette

Bourjois Light Concentre de Lumiere 03 (white-pink)

Catrice Kohl Kajal 040 White

L’Oréal Gel Intenza Eyeliner 01 Pure Black

Max Factor Wild Mega Volume mascara

L’Oréal Volume Million Lashes So Couture mascara

Brows:

Anastasia Dipbrow Pomade in Chocolate

Lips:

Maybelline Super Stay 24 Color 615 Soft Taupe

Maybelline Super Stay 24 Color 260 Wildberry

Current foundations & concealers review (L'Oréal, Max Factor, Maybelline, Vichy)

It's been quite some time since I reviewed something and I decided to talk (write) about my current foundations and concealers. I don't have that much to review and I definitely don't have capacity to review brand products (for example all foundations and concealers from brand Maybelline). I also just randomly purchased these foundations and concealers based on my skin tone and based on a very very poor choice available in the dutch drugstores ( I live in Netherlands).
Actually most of them are very good, I'm using them a lot but there are some I prefer slightly more and I will explain further why.

no foundation on

For comparison there is photo of my face without make up. There is some redness, discoloration, freckles and blemishes as well, so you can see on the photos with foundation and concealer on how good does it cover.
First I'm going to mention the name of the reviewed foundation and it's shade, and concealer as well. On a photo next to it there is foundation and concealer used on my face, little photo of the products themselves (as a proof that I actually have them and I used them) and also zoomed in part of my cheek where I have enlarged pores, some scaring, birth marks, bit of my under eye mimic wrinkles and part of my nose (where the most redness is) also with the foundation on so you can see how does it really look like from close up.
There could be little difference in color of these photo's because I was making them in front of window so I was using only daylight, no flash light and my camera makes photos which are not always 100% true colored.
Also, the foundations might be looking different on these photos than in reality but I did my best to make the photos as close as possible.
I will review foundations and concealers per brand. For certain brands I have no concealers so I won't be reviewing them.
I made photos of those foundations the same day so my face looked exactly the same with applying foundation and I also didn't use any primer in order to get the most of the foundation.

L'Oréal True Match in C2 Rose Vanilla

 L'Oréal
True Match foundation in shade C2 Rose Vanilla
True Match Touche Magique Concealer pen
"No match for me"

This is quite good foundation, medium coverage, nice matt finish - very good for women with very smooth skin. I however have very textured skin, I have acne scars and enlarged pores (which look like little holes in my skin from close-up view). What this foundation does is, that is starts sitting in those pores and scares and in the wrinkles as well and it makes them look more visible. That's one minus. Another minus for me is the color. For me foundation with name "C" (for cool, W for warm, N for neutral) should be having yellow undertone in it. This one unfortunately has red undertone therefore I'm not very happy with it. If you however have red undertone skin, it might be perfect. Maybe the name "rose vanilla" refers to red undertones but how about the name C? It is just very confusing. Maybe I picked up a wrong color, but there was not much choice. On the website there are 3 color shades from each lightness level (C1, W1, N1, C2, W2, N2...etc) but there are very hard to get in the shops in this (full) range. Still, C2 should be yellow, not red.

Concealer is very good though. I assumed that's meant to be under eye concealer - considering it's texture and packaging (liquid concealer in pen). 

It covers very nicely, it doesn't set in the wrinkles, it doesn't move much through the day and pigmentation is very decent.

It comes with little brush from which comes out the product after you twist the bottom but I really don't recommend to apply it directly under your eyes because that brush is very very stiff and that's definitely not gentle to your skin. 

I mostly get some product on back of my hand and I apply it with a finger under my eyes.

I wouldn't use it for blemishes or anything tricky to cover because it's way too light (texture) so it wouldn't cover much.

Also, it's very good for light to medium under-eye darkness but it wouldn't cover bad discoloration or too dark under-eye area. 

You can also use it as a highlighter for your cheekbones, forehead, nose, chin, etc.  

Maybelline Super Stay 24H in 030 Sand

Maybelline Super Stay 24h foundation (030 Sand) & concealer (2 Light, 3 Medium)
"good coverage, no clogging"

I have to say that I really love this foundation. It is amazing for this price and a fact that it's a drugstore brand.
It is very pigmented, formula is liquid but much thicker texture so you have to blend it well - and it goes on the best when you apply it with your fingers.
It stays on all day long - of course it won't be looking exactly same as after you put it on, no foundation does, but it is pretty "long lasting".

The coverage is also very good. It covered my freckles and redness without any problem and I really had to apply just very thin layer, which is quite surprising.

The micro-flex stretch formula provides that this foundation adjusts itself to your skin - and it really works - in my experience.
It doesn't set in wrinkles or pores (therefore no "clogging") so that's a huge plus.
Color shade is also very good. Nice yellow/neutral undertone, no reds so that's something I am very satisfied with.

I have 2 concealers from the same Super Stay 24h line and I am not very fond of them.
They are liquid concealers with bit thicker and dryer formula so they are supposed to stay on blemishes and cover any spots or discoloration - which they do, I have to admit.
I am not happy at all with the colors of these concealers - they were only 3 shades available in the store - numbers 1, 2 and 3. I picked up 2 and 3 from which number 3 has nice yellow/neutral undertone but it is way too dark for me (for covering up blemishes and redness) and number 2 has very ugly grey-ish red undertone and it doesn't match my skin at all. I can't imagine anybody whose skin it would match. So that's a minus. I also quite don't understand how these concealers look like in the packaging. There is kind of a sediment on the bottom of the bottle and I don't know what is it or why is it there. Is the product old, or did it go bad, or is that reaction on warmth or sunlight? I have no idea.

Max Factor Lasting Performance in 101 & 105 

 Max Factor Lasting  Performance foundation (101,  105)
 Pan Stik (concealer  stick), Mastertouch Under-eye  concealer pen (303 Ivory, 309  Beige) "amazing coverage, extremly  natural looking"

When I tried this foundation on for the first time I was  really amazed. So light formula and such an high  pigmentation! 
When you put this foundation on you don't even feel it. It is as light as an moisturizer. I put on just a  little drop of this foundation (half pea size) and it is enough to cover my entire face. The coverage is the highest possible. It leaves on  nice matt finish but deffinitely not dry and it is almost undetectable.
If you find a perfect shade and you put on only little amount nobody would find out that you are wearing foundation

I think that this foundation would work with any skintype.
The formula is just perfect, I can't say it enough.

I have shades 101 Ivory Beige and 105 Soft Beige. I mostly mix them up together because 101 is too light and 105 too dark - and again, there was no shade in between available in the store.


The minus point is that shade 101 is too red. Shade 105 is great, it's yellow undertone so it matches my skin perfect but it's too dark, as I have already mentioned. So the minus point is again - no color with good undertone in a lightness range.
The Pan Stik was a bit surprise for me because I didn't know wether it is foundation or concealer. The answer is simple - both! You can use it as a foundation stick or as an concealer. The coverage is very good, formula too but again - red undertone. So no match for me.
Under-eye concealers are very good. They don't set in wrinkles, they stay on, colors are perfect but they could be bit more pigmented. The L'Oréal's Touche Magique concealer pen has a better pigmentation in my opinion. So I would use this one only for light discoloration or light under-eye darkness, nothing too much of an challenge. It comes with little sponge applicator so you can apply it directly into your under eye area and blend it gently with your fingers or brush.

Vichy Dermablend stick 12 & 14

Vichy dermablend Ultra Corrective Foundation-Cream Stick (14 Nude, 12 Opal)
"perfect coverage, slight oily finish"

I purchased this foundation stick when the freckles on my left cheek turned into pigment spots (caused during pregnancy). I was so fed up by concealers and foundations I had not be able to cover these spots and I really needed something with super power. I have seen ad on this stick showing guy with tattoos and this foundation was supposed to cover them 99%.


Now after a year of using this foundation stick I have to say that it DOES cover  a lot, it does cover more than common concealer but I don't find it capeable of covering tattoos. It has no super power and it doesn't make such a huge difference.

Though it's a very nice foundation, it covers very
very good, it is meant for people with normal to dry skin so it leaves a bit of oily finish - not too oily of course. Nothing which couldn't be fixed with powder.


Good thing about it is that you definitely don't need any primer under it. It is very thick and dry but after you put on your face it melts so you can blend it easily.

I apply stripes (directly from package) on my forehead, nose, cheeks, jaws and chin and then I blend them all over my face with my fingers.
With this technique you use only a little product and you can blend it very good.
I've seen women applying this with a stiff foundation brush but in my opinion this way you happen to apply way too much of a product absolutely unnecessarily.
This way it is also easy to use 2 colors at the same time - as I do. My nose, cheeks an forehead are mostly bit darker than rest of my face (these parts of the face are more exposed to sun than jaws, chin and temples) so I use darker foundation for this area and lighter for the rest of the face.

Another big plus of this foundation is that it doesn't clog the pores - it looks much better than foundation which does clog the pores and sets in them so they look even worse and it is also very good for skin itself - who would want to have blackheads?

I don't see any down side of this foundation, so I would highly recommend it to anyone who doesn't have oily skin and needs this kind of coverage.

Vichy dermablend 25 Nude

Vichy dermablend Fluid Corrective Foundation 16HR in 25 Nude "the best of all"

After having such a wonderful experience with (above mentioned) Vichy stick foundation I decided to try also fluid/liquid version of Dermablend line from Vichy (which is pharmacy's cosmetics).
It was as I expected - another great foundation, extreme pigmentation, no pore clogging formula, long lasting effect - it has it all.
Although, this foundation feels very heavy and thick once applied on skin.

If you are used to it by wearing quite thick layer of foundation then it's not a problem but for me it's not very nice feeling.

I really prefer the "light weight" feeling of foundation on my skin otherwise I feel like I'm wearing a mask.
It is exactly opposite as I was talking about in Max Factor's Lasting Performance foundation - light foundation versus heavy foundation.

It's still very good foundation and I guess it's one of my favourites.
 I wear it on daily basis mixed with Max Factor's Lasting Performance shade 101 Ivory Beige or with my new Pro Longwear Concealer from MAC.
This concealer is shade NC 20 so it is pretty light and yellow and if I mix it with this Vichy foundation the shade is perfect and it also gets much light-feeling formula.
I also normally put my GOSH primer underneath this foundation (mixture).

This foundation is developed especially for people with big issues such as huge pigment spots, bad discoloration, dark spots, light spots etc. but it's also very good for people who hate freckles.
You can see on the photo that it has covered my birth marks almost entirely and they are dark brown. It is not 100% coverage but on the other hand I put on just very tiny amount.
Maybe if you layer it, it might actually cover some spots or marks entirely.
This foundation is also supposed to be waterproof, which I have no experience with - I never go swimming with my make up on - but, when I put it on back of my hand to mix it with other foundation/concealer it stays on and I can't wash it off with only clean water. It needs some cream or oil and some definite rubbing to remove it. So, the waterproof part might be actually true.

Fall bronze feat. Sleek Sunset Palette

This time I decided to make some more "daytime appropriate" look. I had Sunset Palette quite some time and I have been using it only in summers - but as I was going through my make up stash and I saw this palette again, it occurred to me that it might be just perfect for autumn/fall looks. It has only shimmer shades, most of them with golden undertones and it is simply amazing. I highly recommend this palette to everybody with warm or neutral skin tone and with blue or green eyes.


I started on with MAC Paint pot in shade Soft Ochre as a base. I applied all the colors similarly as I did with my previous look (cobalt ombre eyes), so starting with the darkest color along the lash line and moving on to lighter colors on the way towards the brow.
My first color was however from Sleek The Original Palette - rusty shimmery brown, then all colors following were from the Sunset Palette. The highest color was yellow golden one, and I blended it with matt light beige (from Sleek Ultra Matts v2). I applied matt white shadow under the brow bone as a highlight. Then I applied bit of dark matt brown into the outer V and on the lower lid as well. I put white pencil into waterline and into inner corners as a base for shimmery light yellow shadow which I applied afterwards.
I lined my top lash line with black kohl pencil and I smudged it with matt black shadow because I wanted more smokey line effect instead of my usual gel eyeliner.
Then I finished off my face with primer, concealer, foundation, powder, contour and blush and I applied mascara to top and bottom lashes. While mascara was drying I did my brows, then I applied one more coat of mascara and I moved on to my lips. I applied first colour (L'Oréal one) all over the lips and I applied bit of (Max Factor) in the centre of the lips just to make it more interesting.

Products used:
Face:

GOSH Velvet touch foundation primer

Vichy Dermablend Fluid Corrective Foundation 16HR 25 Nude

MAC Pro Longwear Concealer NC 20

Vichy Dermablend Setting Powder (loose)

Sleek Face Form Contouring and blush palette 373 Light

Sleek Lace (blush)
Eyes:

The Original Palette

MAC Paint pot Soft Ochre

Sleek Sunset Palette

Sleek The Original Palette

Sleek Ultra Matts v2 Palette

L’Oréal Color Riche LeKhol 101 Midnight black

Max Factor Wild Mega Volume mascara

Max Factor 2000 Calorie Dramatic volume mascara

Brows:

Sunset Palette

Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow Pomade Chocolate

Lips:

L’Oréal Infallible Lipstick 312 Incessant Russet

Max Factor Lipfinity 150 Bare

7 most common brow mistakes

I see so many times women with wrong shaped, or badly filled-in eye brows. It is a shame because such a mistake can ruin the entire look. No matter how perfect your eye and face make up is, if you have brows done not correct way, it will just not look good.
In this article I will be talking (writing) about 7 ways of wrongly done brows - ergo brow "fails". I will try also to explain why are those specific brow styles simply WRONG.
To show you what I mean. I did my brows the "correct" way (in my opinion), then I took the photo and I changed the shapes, thickness and color using online photo editor. I hope you enjoy this article,  and that you won't be offended if those mistakes are concearning you. In the end of this article I will mention mistakes I made in my brow routine. Here we go.

Fail nr. 1:  NO BROWS

No brows means that all face, lip and eye make up is done but brows are not filled-in, not brushed or anything else what you might do to enhance them. You can see if you look to this picture that something is missing - without defined brows look doesn't look complete.
Most of the women don't have perfect brows - neither do I. The hair is not thick enough, there are some sparse areas, the hair doesn't grow much at the ends of the brows, so they look short. Therefore I have to fill them in, to give them shape and bit of a color, because they are too light and my hair is black. About the correct color of your brows I will talk later.
Only a few of the women who have very nice and full brows can afford to not doing anything with them. Yet I recommend to at least brush them through with clear brow gel or mascara, it gives them nice shape and it makes the hair going one direction.

Fail nr. 2: BROWS TOO FAR FROM EACH OTHER

This is one of the WORST things you can do - not fill-in your brows close enough which will give you terrible clown look. Please, don't do that.
I know, Joan Collins also had brows like that in Dynasty, but yeah, there are no 80's anymore, so such a thing is definitely not acceptable in 2014. Still, I've even seen make up artists with brows so far from each other, and I don't know what to really think about them then - poor judgement of what fits to them or simply not knowing much about beauty? It's just plain wrong.
There are theory's on where your brows should begin. Of course, you don't want to put them too close to each other because it will give you a angry look, and that's something you don't want.
I've seen one quite good "pencil technique" where you simply put a pencil in front of your nostril so it's straight and you just follow it's line and there should be your brow starting.
It might fit to most of the women, except those with close set eyes. Then their brows should start above their inner corners of their eyes.
Another technique would be to frown as much as you can, and where the brows start to wrinkle in the middle, there should be your brows starting. And that's also your natural brow line. It might be not 100% accurate but it might help you to figure out were should your brows start.

Fail nr. 3: CLOWN BROWS

It says for itself - there type of brows will make you look like a clown. These brows are TOO THIN - it is just one line, same thick at the beginning as at the end and which is same bad or even worse - BAD ROUND SHAPE. I personally really hate round brows. It looks like you would put a glass on you eye and just traced its shape. That's not how brows should look like.
Too thin brows will make you look older - that's for sure. It was a big hit in some decades, I still remember the 90's when everybody just over plucked their eyebrows till they were super thin, even barely visible. Even worse, some women just plucked them totally gone and drew them on with a pencil - just like in 1930's and 40's. It really doesn't look natural nor nice. If you have only few hair on your brows or you don't have any hair on your brows at all, you might try some brow pomade (for example dip brow from Anastasia Beverly Hills or Make up Forever Aqua Brow, and from cheaper brands Sleek makes pretty good brow wax), with which you can draw brows on and blend it nicely (which you can't do with just brow pencil). Try to draw brows thicker in the inner corners, slimming down towards the arch and from arch till outer end slimming even more. The perfect brows should have a shape of wings of flying albatross or eagle. That brings me to issue nr. 2 which is shape. I have seen girls with brows plucked to round shape - it might be probably because rumour says that you should pluck your brows only from the bottom, never from the top. I personally find this a nonsense. You can pluck your brows from any direction you want to give them nice shape. If your brows are growing naturally high and you want to give them nice "flying wings" shape, you can easily pluck from top as well. Anything which avoids the shape like it's on this photo.

 Fail nr. 4: WEIRD SHAPE

This is another example of not good shape. It is not natural, it gives a face not nice expression and the shape itself is just weird. It's definitely NOT flying wings shape.
Another thing which makes it wrong is that slimming of the brow is not smooth - brow is slimming towards the arch quite fluent but from the arch till the end is way too thin.
This shape is also more of a "straight" brow category, which I have nothing against - straight brows are awesome if they fit you but you can see on this picture that this shape really does not fit me.
Easiest for you to find out which brow shape fits you the most is make a photo of it and make a photo of another one - or draw your brows on with photo editor and then you can decide which brow shape will fit you and which won't. I recommend to simply stick with what you naturally have. If you have naturally straight brows, go for that shape but if your brows are naturally arched and defined, stay with that shape.

Fail nr. 5: WAY TOO DARK

Here you can see right away what is wrong - the brows are too dark. Although they match my hair color but they don't match my skin color.
The key for finding out how dark the brows should be is to compare hair color and skin color and find a compromise.
If you have black hair and dark skin, black brows are okay. But if you have black hair and pale skin, you have to go for brown or dark brown - something which won't look too harsh on your skin.
In general - if you are brunette, your brows should be 2 or 3 shades lighter than your hair. If you have light hair, then they should be 1 or 2 shades darker than your hair. But again - any coloring you do on yourself has to be in harmony with your skin.

Fail nr. 6: TOO SHORT

the pencil technique

Here we have brows which are too short. Too short means that they are ending before outer eye corner. With finding out where the brows should end we can use the pencil technique again. Put pencil so it goes from your nostril, along outer corner of your eye and there you will see where should your brows end. Pretty easy.
But again, don't draw your brows too long. It was very fashionable in 30's and 40's (or even earlier, I might be wrong), the era where women drew their brows on with a pencil and they drew them so long that it gave them super "bored" look - that's what they were actually going for.
Now, we the most certainly don't want to look bored. We want to look pretty, happy and healthy.

Fail nr. 7: TOO LIGHT

We have already talked about proper color of the brows. You could see how does it look like if we use too dark color for the brows. Here, you can see what happens if the brows are way too light. If I would have light brown or blond hair, it would be okay. It is also not such a big deal if you would look only to my face. But, if I would have my hair loose than you would see that it doesn't look good with my black hair. It would even look quite funny I think.
So, keep in mind that there really should be harmony between your brow color, your skin color and your hair color.








THE "PERFECT BROWS"

This is the perfect shape of brows for my complexion. The color is right, not too dark, not too light, thickness and length is ideal. Although, I had a much struggle with my brows in my pass.
When I was younger, I plucked my brows way too thin.I was filling them in with dark brown pencil. It wasn't bad but it definitely made me look older. Then I started to fill in my brows thicker but I was using very rich dark brown eyeshadow so it was looking very obvious and very harsh and the first thing what people would notice on my face were my brows.
Then I discovered Catrice brow powder in perfect taupe brown colour, so it wasn't too warm or too fake looking, so it made my brow routine much easier and results much more natural. I also started to use small angle brush for application - which is much better than my previous flat brush which didn't make very thin lines.
Then I have purchased my first dip brow pomade from Anastasia Beverly Hills and it was something very new for me. With creamy gel you have to do your brows totally different than with powder, and you can not make any mistakes. After some time I learned how to do that properly, so now I don't have a problem with it anymore. Although, I still think I should switch the color from Chocolate to something darker like Dark brown or even Ebony.
Till some time ago I was making my brows way too close to each other (as you can see on my older posts).  It made me look older and angry. I admit. Now I can see it much better because I know what I did wrong and now I can see the difference much better. I hope you can also learn a little bit more about mistakes you should not be making and I hope it makes you look better and also feel better. I know that beauty is just a matter of taste but I think that each of us should just try to look the best we can....

Cobalt ombre eyes - 4 shades of blue

I have made this look already earlier on my sister, but photo's didn't come out good so I decided to re-create it again with little changes. I was quite out of my comfort zone - I normally never wear blue eye shadows, because I have feeling that it doesn't really fit with my eye color, but after I saw these photo's I thought that it is not so bad.  Anyway, you can do this look with any eye shadow color you want - purple, green, pink...whatever you like. I really love this shade of blue (cobalt). It is so hard to find it and if you would find it in this specific colour and you would put it on your eyes, it would still look different. Therefore I have used 4 different shades of blue to achieve perfect cobalt color. The point is that you start with the darkest color which you apply lowest (right above the lash line) and then you apply lighter shades on the way up (to the brow bone). The key is to cross those colors a little so the transition will be smooth and almost invisible. If you do that well, you won't even see that there are 4 different colors on the lid.

I started with Sleek Primer Palette, applying blue primer all over the lid with flat synthetic brush. Then I started applying eye shadows - first I applied dark navy blue from Sleek The Original Palette. I put it all along the lash line, from inner corner to outer corner, to approximately half of my eyelid - almost as a very thick eyeliner. Then I put blueberry shadow on from Sleek Candy Palette which is 2 or 3 shades lighter then shadow I used earlier. I started to put this shadow where the dark one ended and little bit over it, so the transition will be smooth without any harsh edges. I applied this shadow all over the lid as well and I stopped where the crease begins. Then I took turquoise shadow from The Original palette and I put it into the crease. When I had the shape I wanted, I blended the edges with matt light blue shadow from the Candy palette. Then I put matt light beige shadow on top of light blue to neutralize all those blue colors so they don't go all the way up to my brow bone. Then I put white matt eyeshadow on my brow bone.

Then I cleaned up fall outs with dump cotton pad and I swept it under my eyes along the lower lash line all the way out towards my brow to create sharp edge. Then I applied white kohl pencil into my waterline and bit into inner corners of the eyes. Then I put white matt shadow on top of it (in the inner corners). Then I put warm matt chocolate shadow all along the lower lash line and out to meet the blue eyeshadow. Then I applied matt black shadow all along the top lash line and I extended it outwards so it darken the outer edge and I applied a bit on the bottom lash line as well.
Then I moved to the rest of the face.
First I applied my primer all over the face, then I put concealer under my eyes and I mixed a bit of it with my foundation and I applied very thin layer all over my face. Then I set everything with a loose powder, I did a bit of contouring under my cheekbones and bit of a highlight on my cheekbones. I didn't use any blush. I applied very generous amount of mascara on my top lashes and I did my brows while it was drying. Then I put a second coat of mascara and I put one coat on bottom lashes too (with different mascara). Then I put a lipstick on and voila - make up ready:-)

Products used:

Face:

GOSH Velvet touch foundation primer

Vichy Dermablend Fluid Corrective Foundation 16HR 25 Nude

MAC Pro Longwear Concealer NC 20

Vichy Dermablend Setting Powder (loose)

Sleek Face Form Contouring and blush palette 373 Light

Eyes:

Sleek Primer Palette

Sleek The Original eyeshadow palette

Sleek Candy eyeshadow palette

Sleek Ultra Matts v2 eyeshadow palette

Max Factor Wild Mega Volume mascara (top lashes)

Max Factor 2000 Calorie Dramatic volume mascara (bottom lashes)

Catrice Kohl Kajal 040 White

Brows:

Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow Pomade Chocolate

Lips:

Maybelline Super Stay 24 Color 615 Soft Taupe

Fall plum/aubergine reverse smokey eyes feat. Sleek Vintage Romance eyeshadow palette

Fall is here and autumn trends as well. There would be no autumn without using lots of plum, violet, burgundy and aubergine shades - on lips, on eyes, on cheeks...everywhere.  I absolutely love these colors and I wear them on daily basis - mostly on my lips. I think it just looks amazing in combination with white or light skin. If you have also pale skin and dark hair, it will fit you perfectly for sure.
I thought that I will kind of combine those 2 "hits" of this season - plum eyes and plum lips.
I have used mainly Sleek Vintage Romance eyeshadow Palette which was released in autumn last year and it has mainly golden and plum-pink shades. There is also 1 silver shade which I used into my inner corners, dark gold one I put all over my lid area and I used plum-pink into my outer V's and all along the bottom lash line. That is also reason why is this look called "reverse smokey eyes" - which means that all the accent is on the bottom lid and lash line. The darkest colour (black gel liner) is in the waterline, then there is same plum color as on the outer V and it is blended with dark gold color I applied on the top lid. It is not very difficult to make, the trick is that all the colors have to be blended well and they have to fade out gradually - the transmission between colors have to be seamless.
With this look are both eyes and lips very strong therefore the colors have to match with each other. It doesn't specifically mean that they have to be exactly same colors, but they have to have same undertones (in this case blue) and be on same color scale (in this case cool).
Don't go too crazy on brows because with too defined brows it may look waaaaaaaaaay over done.
Keep them simple. I used dark grey shadow and clear brow gel for more natural look.
I applied quite generous amount of mascara, you can even put on false lashes - it would look even better and more glamorous.
Make sure that you skin looks as good as possible - conceal all blemishes, discolorations, dark circles, pigment spots, etc. Don't put on too much foundation thought, the skin has to look natural. I used the thinnest layer of full coverage foundation mixed with concealer. I always apply foundation just with my fingers, never with brush because with fingers I can control the amount better. With the brush I always apply more than I want to.
I did very light contouring and very very light blush because I wanted the lip color to stand out the most.



Products used:

Face:

GOSH Velvet touch foundation primer

Vichy Dermablend Fluid Corrective Foundation 16HR 25 Nude

MAC Pro Longwear Concealer NC 20

Vichy Dermablend Setting Powder (loose)

Sleek Face Form Contouring and blush palette 373 Light

Sleek Pomegranate 923

Eyes:

GOSH waterproof eye shadow stick “Love that Gold!”

Sleek Vintage Romance 

Sleek Ultra Matts v2

L’Oréal Gel Intenza Eyeliner 01 Pure Black

L’Oréal Volume Million Lashes So Couture mascara

Brows:

Rimmel mono matt eyeshadow dark grey/black

Catrice clear brow gel

Lips:

Maybelline Super Stay 

24 Color 240 Plum Seduction