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

Maybelline Super Stay 24 hour Color Lipsticks

 I have already mentioned these lipsticks in one of my previous reviews so I am not going to write it all over again. As I said before, these lipsticks are same kind as L'Oréal's Infallible and Max Factor's Lipfinity. The whole point is that these lipstick are not smudging, staining nor moving and once you apply them they WILL stay on until you remove it. The formula is fluid, application is similar to lip gloss and it dries on lips into matt finish. Down side is that it doesn't feel nice on lips when you try it first time - it is very very dry - but after some time you can get used to it. However, there is a balm on the other side of the lipstick which you should apply once the lipstick is totally dry. That makes it bit better. Also, taste of that balm is not one of my favourite.
Though after you try these kind of lipsticks you will see how nicely they stay on and you will never go back to common lipsticks any more..at least I didn't.
Another advantage of these lipsticks is that they are very pigmented and you can also layer them to achieve higher intensity. Mostly one layer is enough to cover up your natural lip color but if you wish to have darker or more intense color you can easily apply 2 layers.
I first start with filling my lips with surface of the applicator, then I outline them with very tip of the applicator. I wait till it's all dry and then I apply one more coat all over the lips. With darker and more intense colors I also use very precise small lip brush, I dip it into lipstick and I go over the edges of my lips to create very fine precise outline. Remember, more dark and intense color you are using, more precise you have to be because it will show. I also usually go bit over the natural line of my lips to make them appear bigger and fuller (which looks always better with using dark colors).
On the pictures below you will see my collection of Maybelline Super Stay 24 Lipsticks with numbers and colors - which are available in European market. Shades and numbers are different for US.

Maybelline Superstay 24 hour Color 585 Burgundy

Maybelline Superstay 24 hour Color 260 Wildberry

Maybelline Superstay 24 hour Color 510 Red Passion

Maybelline Superstay 24 hour Color 240 Plum Seduction

Maybelline Superstay 24 hour Color 615 Soft Taupe

Maybelline Superstay 24 hour Color 340 Absolute Plum

Rusty brown & pop of green (Sephora Endless Color Blockbuster palette)

I really love warm brown eye shadows but I was bit afraid to use it because it kind of made me looking sick. It is very tricky to use warm tone eye shadows for women with cool undertone skin. My skin is neutral though but it is still quite difficult for me to use warm browns. Therefore I have tried this look - warm brown with red undertones blended with orange and pop of cool green into inner corners to tone down all the warm colors, For this look I have used my Sephora Endless Color Blockbuster Collector’s Edition Makeup Palette which I get as a present quite some time ago but I actually haven't use it that much. I was always used to work with Sleek eye shadows which are extremely pigmented so these Sephora shadows seemed not that good to me. But now I have found out that these shadows are perfect for blending and I have to build the color up. You won't get much of a pigmentation just with one sweep (as you normally would with Sleek shadows) but you can layer the colors on top of each other which creates amazing effect which was very surprising for me. I think this look turned out very well and I am definitely going to use this Sephora palette much more often.

Products used:

Face:

GOSH Velvet touch foundation primer

L’Oréal True Match C2 Rose Vanilla

MAC Pro Longwear Concealer NC 20

Vichy Dermablend Setting Powder (loose)

Sleek Face Form Contouring and blush palette 373 Light

Sleek Suede 921

Eyes:

MAC Pro Longwear Concealer NC 20 (as a base)

Sephora Endless Color Blockbuster Collector’s Edition Makeup Palette 2010 L’Oréal Gel Intenza Eyeliner 01 PureBlack 
Catrice Kohl Kajal 040 White

L’Oréal Volume Million Lashes So Couture mascara

Brows:

Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow Pomade Chocolate

Lips:

L’Oréal Infallible Lipstick 312 Incessant Russet

with rusty brown eyeshadow from Sephora palette on top of it:-)

How to fix damaged hair over night

Lots of us are from time to time experiencing damaged hair, split ends, dry and weak hair without shine and all those kind of unpleasant and irritating issues which keep us further and further from perfect healthy shiny hair.
The most common and most drastic solution is cutting. For women who want to have their hair long or as long as possible cutting is very undesirable. Therefore they keep on trying out new and different products on the market which promise to fix all those above mentioned problems.

I have tried several of those products but I haven't find anything extraordinary which would be worth of mentioning. I have found one product though, which really DOES make difference. And it is quite cheap and you can purchase it very easily. I am talking about SWEET ALMOND OIL.

One of the best qualities of almond oil is that is 100% natural - which means there are absolutely no chemicals added. ( I am using Sweet Almond Oil from Jacob Hooy), There are no fragrances, no alcohol, no silicone...absolutely nothing which would be in any kind not good for your hair. Therefore you can never go wrong with natural product in comparison with factory produced item.

Another advantage of almond oil is that it deep conditions hair and you will see the difference after only 1 use. Of course, if you will use it frequently, you will definitely get healthy shiny hair.
Although I am not talking about any miracle. If your hair is heavily damaged or "burned" from bleaching almond oil won't be able to make your hair absolutely healthy or extremely shiny.

HOW TO USE IT:
Depending on your hair (and hair damage) use it 1 till 4 times a week (you can even use it every day if you feel like you need to).
Warm it up in hot water (it is not necessary but it helps to penetrate the hair). Some people warm up oils in the microwave oven but I really don't recommend it ( there is a theory according to which micro waves are actually very bad for human body).
Brush your hair very good - there should not be any tangles.
Gently rub the oil on your hair - start about 10 cm from your roots and work your way down. You can put the oil also in your hair roots and massage your scalp if you have dry skin as well. I personally don't do it because my hair tends to get quite oily. I apply the oil only where is my hair damaged.
Be very generous, apply as much as you can. Your hair should be soaked with oil. Then you can braid your hair or tie it in a bun or do what you're most comfortable with and leave it in for 24 hours or longer if you like to. I mostly apply the oil in the evening and I leave it over night.
Then wash your hair with shampoo and apply conditioner as you normally would.

After I tried this almond oil treatment I could see the difference right away. Of course, my hair wasn't damaged too badly, but I had split ends and bottom section of my hair was very dry, not shiny and I could feel that my hair has lost elasticity. After 24 hour oil treatment my hair felt much healthier, shiny and was much easier to brush it. I am using this treatment approximately 2 - 3 times a month just to keep it healthy, shiny and to give it an extra boost of vitamins and moisture.

For more information about benefits of almond oil click here

Orange cut crease

This look is slightly more dramatic, very appropriate for party's, clubbing or another events where you would like to get attention and "stand out of a crowd". It is also a bit more difficult to create than smokey eyes but the result is definitely worth the effort.

I have seen similar look which inspired me to create this one on YouTube channel created by Maya Mia (check her channel, she's awesome!) only she has made the crease less dramatic and brown - I made my much thicker and darker. She has used matt mint green/aqua shadow as a main colour. I went for vibrant shimmery orange just to make something different and something out of my comfort zone because I usually don't use orange.

Also, this eye look won't show much with your eyes open, however, it will totally stand out when you close your eyes or when you blink:-). If you like you may make it even more dramatic with using false eyelashes (same as Maya Mia did) or you can tone it down by making crease brown instead of black and slightly thinner and not as thick as I did.

You can also go for different eyeshadow colour - you can choose something which will compliment your eye colour or something as contrast to it. Orange will absolutely bring out your eye colour if you have blue or grey eyes but it is also very nice with green and brown eyes. I recommend to use very light or bright colour for cut crease look to create a contrast to dark crease. This would also look great with white. pink, aqua blue or any colour which you normally don't use as a main colour. To make it more clubbing appropriate you may also use glitter on top of the eyeshadow. You can be as creative as you like with this look.

Products used:
face:

GOSH Velvet touch foundation primer

Vichy Dermablend Fluid Corrective Foundation 16HR 25 Nude mixed with:

Max Factor Lasting Performance 101 Ivory Beige foundation

Max Factor Mastertouch Under-eye concealer pen 303 Ivory

Maybelline Super Stay 24H Concealer 2 Light

Sleek Face Form Contouring and blush palette 373 Light

Vichy Dermablend Setting Powder (loose)

brows:

Catrice Eyebrow Set Powder

Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow Pomade Chocolate

eyes:

Catrice Kohl Kajal 040 White

L’Oréal Gel Intenza Eyeliner 01 Pure Black

(into crease, on top lash line, into waterline)

Sleek I divine Ultra Matts v2 palette

Sleek I divine Sunset Palette

Max Factor Clump Defy by false lash effect mascara

L’Oréal Volume Million Lashes So Couture mascara

lips:

L’Oréal Infallible Lipstick 312 Incessant Russet

Photoshop lies

Once I was browsing through YouTube and I found several interesting videos entitled "celebrities photoshopped" and "celebrities without make up". Honestly, I couldn't believe my eyes. I have found women which world presents as an examples of beauty, icons, idols, "the most sexy people of the world" etc. looking just like any other common women easily found in shops or on the streets. No perfect skins, no perfect shaped bodies, no perfect make up...it really made me think.

I know that nobody is perfect and I am not jealous of celebrities because they are dealing with problems I really wouldn't like to have and I don't think that money they make are worth it (no privacy, paparazzi hiding behind every bush, every step they make is watched and judged by public, stalkers, mentally ill fans, made up crap in magazines, finding out about cheating boyfriends from the press, etc).
Also, I have never been a big fan of celebrities because I don't find them that special. Maybe some of them might be great singers or great actors and they may appear absolutely gorgeous on photo's or on TV but most of the time "products" they sell aren't there.
In this article I will be talking specifically about beauty or so called beauty.

I will never understand why are they trying to be perfect. And I will also never understand why magazines force people to be perfect. Why do they have to photoshop every single photo they have and try to convince us that every celebrity woman has an amazing skin, that none of them have acne, scars, wrinkles, dark circles, no under eye bags etc....? Or why do they want us to believe that a 55-years old woman has skin as a 20 year old one?

Of course, it's all about money. If some aged celebrity would actually admit to her age and appear on photos the way she actually looks like, nobody would find her (appearance) any special, therefore nobody would buy her photos and nobody would spend lots of money trying to look like her.

Still, I find it ridiculous because if the celebrities let their photos be photoshopped and published making the world believe that they actually ARE perfect, then it puts big pressure at them to actually DO look perfect the entire time they are at the public (with new photo technology and special equipment of paparazzi they have to look perfect even at home).
Well, that's the choice they make. What I find very unethical is, that there are so many women very frustrated because they do everything they can to look like those celebrities without positive result - not realising that those "perfect" celebrities don't exist and they have been lied to.

Yet, what pisses me off even more - not that I have been pissed so far, but I'm getting there - are commercials. For example - a mascara commercial. The
commercial shows that if you apply that specific mascara on your lashes, they will become very thick and long. They put on nice pictures "before" and "after". Only, at the "after" picture the model has totally big fat FALSE lashes on. And they are pretending that it's absolutely natural and that the mascara is absolutely miraculous. I don't get it. Do they really think that we would actually buy it? Why can not they just pick a girl with beautiful lashes, let her put on that mascara and make pictures of it. It would look more believable and not so absolutely stupid as using false lashes pretending they are real.

Or another example - a face cream. On the commercial there is a beautiful young girl (of 15 probably) with beautiful flawless skin and text next to it says that with using that cream you will achieve perfect skin without any imperfections. They will even give you percentage of women for which it worked. But, they also put on a little star * behind a text and if you search for that star * you will find it somewhere hidden with very small letters that says *TEST IN VITRO what actually means that the test is" taking place in a test tube, culture dish, or elsewhere outside a living organism."  So that would mean that those women they were referring to were either non living organism or possibility number two - it's total crap. Besides that, the photo they have used is also photoshopped. They made her skin look super smooth, there are not even pores showing which is absolute proof that this specific photo has been adjusted with a computer program. FYI, I am using the term "photoshopped" because most people know that adobe photoshop is a computer program used for adjusting photos and pictures and you can do pretty much everything you want with it. Of course, nowadays there are soooooooooo many different computer programs specialised in this area used by real professionals. 

So, after disappointing myself with finding out that famous women aren't that pretty and every magazine photo they are at is probably photoshopped, I decided that I will photoshop one of my photos. I have always wanted to have beautiful flawless skin without any acne scars, pigment spots, freckles nor mimic lines and voila - now I have it! Just few minutes on my computer and if you wouldn't know me you would think that I have perfect skin.....Oh, and I have also make my skin tone less red and I made my eyes greener than they actually are:-)

BEFORE

AFTER

So, what I wanted to say with this article, my dear readers/followers/friends is PLEASE THINK! When you are reading a magazine or watching TV and you see some celebrity and you sigh "wow, she is so beautiful, I wished I look like her..."and then you look in the mirror and what you see is so different that it makes you feel sad/depressed and then you go to the shop and you see her face on some product and you think about buying it so you would look like her - THINK! She probably doesn't look like that in real and without make up you probably look better than her and the product she sells might be a total lie too. If you really want to know if some product is worth buying I recommend to check it on YouTube, there are girls and women reviewing pretty much everything and there is a bigger chance that they are telling the truth than celebrity in the commercial or commercial itself with their photoshop lies....

50's pin-up

 I absolutely adore 50's pin-up looks because they are so simple looking. They are pretty much only three things going on - brows, bold eyeliner with false lashes and red lips, everything else is tuned down.

With this look I have started with face primer from Gosh and my all time favourite foundation from Vichy Dermablend in shade 25 Nude because it has so light formula and very heavy coverage (which is something I require) so I don't have to apply much of it. I did light contouring with medium taupe brown eyeshadow.
For the eyes I have started with base for which I used Maybelline Super Stay concealer in shade 2, then I apply white Sleek eyeshadow (using Matt v2 palette), then I applied light beige and darker beige mixed with brown into crease (from same palette). I mainly concentrated onto eyeliner - I used L'Oréal gel liner with black matt shadow on top of it to avoid shine and also protect from creasing. Then I applied thin layer of mascara and I used false half lashes only for outer parts. In my opinion half lashes look more natural and not so obvious than full lashes. After lash glue dried I apply bit more liner on top of it just to hide it (very important step if you use false lashes). Than I applied white pencil into waterline and mascara on bottom lashes.
For lips I have used Maybelline Super Stay 24H, my absolutely favourite lipstick so far in shade 510 Red Passion and I went bit over the line (on op lip), just to see how would it look like because my model has top lip bit smaller than bottom one. And, as I have mentioned in my earlier posts, when using bright or dark lipsticks it is mostly very convenient to extend it slightly more over the line as you might usually do with nude lip colours because they optically make lips look smaller.
I finished off with brows, I used as always my Anastasia Dipbrow pomade in shade Chocolate, which fits the most of my models (as long as they are brunettes). I tried to keep the natural shape of my model's brows but still I tried to make it more 50's looking - which is neat and bold and quite arched, so I came up with kind of a compromise. I used clear brow gel to make it more natural afterwards.