Okay so it really has been a damn year since I did anything with this blog....
Sorry.
But I'll make it up to you, I have a couple of different nuggets of information that I've picked up from the last year that have changed my makeup life.
So I'll start with the tips first, and the products second.

Tip 1: Use a hair dryer to heat up your eyelash curler. Warning, do not heat it too much! you will burn your eyelid and that is no buenos okay? By heating the curler, it works exactly the way a curling iron would, and keeps your curl lifted all day.

Tip 2: Okay this one is harder to explain but give me a hot minute, you can strategically place your lashes before you curl them. So while your lashes are in the position shown in the photo below, you may take your finger and position the lashes which ever way you like, you can separate them if any seem to be sticking to eachother, you may create a beautiful fanned-out effect by moving them into different positions, whatever you want really. I can't get enough of this technique.











Tip 3: Place eyelash adhesive to your lashline, as well as on the lash band. I usually place the glue all over the band, and then on my lashline in a dotted line, one stroke on the inner corner towards the tear duct, one in the middle, and then one on the outer corner of my eye, I have never had to deal with a painfully annoying lifted lash since using this technique, even through dancing for 4 hours underneath bleary hot stage lights that used to decimate most of my makeup.

Tip 4: Use Milk of Magnesia as a face primer. Sounds gross right? Wrong. This is my holy grail face primer in the summer, I've never used anything that has kept so much oil at bay for so long, and it smooths out texture like large pores and acne scarring. It is the only primer I use when I'm performing as well. It's perfection.

Tip 5: This is a tip that I picked up from a YouTuber Nikkitutorials, If you have dryer skin, using the Nivea Men's Aftershave Balm as a primer is fantastic. I use this primer in the winter and it has truly converted me to using it for all my dry skinned clients.


Alrighty, now it's time for the products I've become attached to over this past year.
The Sephora Collection Perfection Mist Airbrush Foundation is my holy grail performance foundation. The reason I specify performance is because this foundation retails at about 28.00 USD and even though it comes with about 2.5 fl oz (whereas the standard foundation bottle comes with about 1 fl oz) it comes in a spray-can sort of packaging, and when sprayed it releases a crap ton of product so in all reality you only get about 3 to 4 full faces with one can. But it looks amazing in photos, lasts all damn day and is very resistant to oil, and because whenever my dance studio puts on a bigger show, I always do a lot of girls' makeup and full stage makeup takes a very long time to do, and my specific routine that I have developed is very complicated, but with this foundation I can spray it all over the face, buff it in with a flat-top face brush and move on to the next step, it saves me so much time I'd make love to it if I could. I will be uploading a video/detailed product list of my full 30 foot stage makeup routine when it comes time in the dance season for me to perform on a stage that large again.
Now for every day makeup, which I will also be uploading a detailed product list/video on, I usually wear a tinted moisturizer and the Tarte Amazonian Clay Full Coverage Airbrush Fouldation  , which I use like a finishing powder. Now contrary to the name, this powder is far from full coverage, it's a light to medium coverage for sure, but I'll tell you the thing that makes me love the powder and swear by it until I die... As this powder collects oil, it looks better and better like you wouldn't believe. Over the coarse of an hour or two your face has no trace of any texture and it's just flawless, luminous but  natural and effortless.
And now, my favorite mascara as of recently is the L'oreal Extra Volume Collagen Black Mascara. I don't know who sold their soul to make a formula this close to Jesus's eyelashes but whoever did it deserves a Nobel peace prize because holy fuck. It lengthens, it volumizes, it separates, it's only issue is that even with the hair dryer eyelash curler trick, the lashes still sag over time. But still, it's not a horrible ammount of sag, just a little bit, I still love it.

And that's it! That's the highlights of the makeup year. I'll probably make a post about the worst products I've stumbled upon over this year in the future.
Ta-Ta for now.


God bless.

Foundation Faux Pas And How To Avoid Them.

When picking a foundation that's right for you, it may be more complicated than you think. Let's talk about what to do when picking a foundation to make sure it's right for you!

We all know the struggle of buying a new foundation and being ever so disappointing when the shade turns too dark or too light for your skin. Shade matching is one of the more problematic issues anybody has to deal with when going to purchase a foundation. The first thing we need to do is recognize what kinds of tone our skin takes. Generally there are three tones, warm, cool and neutral. We can test our skin tone by looking at our wrists, or the arches of our feet. Notice the color of the veins that appear underneath your skin, if the veins are blue, you have cool tones, like me. If the veins are green, you have warm tones, and if the veins are green/blue with some purple veins, you have neutral tones.
Now it's time to determine what your skin type is. Again, there are three different kinds of skin type, dry, oily, and combination skin. It doesn't take a rocket-scientist to figure this out, I'm pretty sure you already know your skin type, and if not, take a look at your skin in the mirror right now. If it's not oily, a little flaky maybe and quite dry, you have dry skin. If your face is a bit more slick, and more shiny, you have oily skin, and if you're dry in some areas and oily in others, you have combination skin.
Let's talk coverage. There are all different kinds of coverages when we purchase foundation, ranging from light to full coverage. Coverage is a matter of preference usually although for combination and oily skin types I would recommend looking for a full coverage foundation, it's all about fighting your oils to preserve the makeup and fight excess shine. Full coverage foundations are also great for those who find they have a lot of break outs that they'd like to cover. Dry skin can work with some full coverage foundations, but not all. I would recommend (if your skin doesn't have too many breakouts that you're uncomfortable showing) a good medium coverage or a light coverage. The only bugaboo is that light coverage foundations tend to not have as much stamina as a hearty full coverage mixture. So make sure you invest in a good powder and setting spray, I recommend Model in a Bottle, you can find it on Amazon, or anywhere online that suits your fancy.

When it comes to choosing a shade that's perfect for you, I know I have a huge problem. Not only am I super fair, but foundation oxidizes on my skin. What oxidization does is, the longer the foundation is on your skin and the warmer it gets, the more the shade will change. Unfortunately there's nothing that can really help my situation, it's all about trial and error, and after many products come and gone for one reason or another, I've finally found my holy grail foundation, Makeup Forever's Mat Velvet in the shade Alabaster. It's perfect for my skin, and it doesn't hardly change shade at all throughout the day. It's stamina is amazing and it works well with my dry skin. I do however have a problem with cakiness, but I'm still experimenting on ways to apply it to my skin, and I'm sure i'll be able to fix that problem eventually. I'll be posting a review on it separately at some point, a long with a video demonstration!
You can also expect a haul in the upcoming weeks.
One thing I would like to mention before I go is, I'm completely revamping my hairstyle! So I'll be asking you guys what you think of it when I post that video, I'm also changing up my wardrobe a little bit, and this blog will most likely be getting one hell of a makeover as well. Can't wait to see what you guys think!

Ta-Ta for now, babes.

Bare Necessities.

It's time for another review! Let's talk about foundation for a bit.
Now, I've tried many different foundations from Covergirl to Dior, I'm gonna talk about some of the high-end foundations that I've tried, and give you some drugstore equivalents of these products. Keep in mind that everyone has different skin types, and this is my personal experience with these items, yours could be completely different. Just for reference, my skin type is quite average, not too oily and not too dry, and I am very fair.

My skin tone is quite difficult to match since I'm so fair, so foundation shopping can be kind of tedious for me. The first high end-ish base that I ever tried was the Bare Minerals mineral foundation, which is a light powder mixture made purely of minerals and skin-healthy materials. This foundation comes in a powder and a liquid form, but I've only tried the powder as of yet. For a long time it was my holy grail foundation, it matched my skin tone perfectly, gave me from light all the way to heavy coverage. Upon using this item I also noticed the condition of my skin improved over the span of a couple weeks. I used this product for a year before I found any sort of problem with it. It was when I began dance lessons that I noticed the product never lasted. I used both moisturizer and primer before applying it, I even used hairspray. Nothing would stop this product from rubbing off, or sweating off. All in all it was a great foundation, but it wasn't what I needed makeup wise for my new lifestyle. In the end I had to say goodbye to my first makeup love. Even if I wanted to I couldn't compare this product to any drugstore item, because nothing will give you such spectacular color matching and coverage without becoming either too pigmented or cakey. Still one of my favorites though, some things just weren't meant to be.
Rating: 5/5 

Let's get heavy duty and talk about my experience with Diorskin Forever Flawless Perfection Wear Makeup. I went to Sephora to find a liquid foundation that would stay on my skin through the heavy stress on my skin, and a lovely man directed me towards the Dior section of the various foundation counters, he proceeded to test a product on my skin and the results were amazing it matched my skin perfectly, the potion almost felt like velvet, even when I went outside it didn't change shade slightly as it adjusted to the warmth, I had such high hopes for this foundation. So the next day I apply it with great eagerness and the results were ever so disappointing. I looked like a pumpkin. The mixture didn't feel anything like what I had felt in the store, it was thick, goopey and gross. My complexion declined horribly with using this product, and over the summer while I tried to tan, the color got even worse. This particular foundation is color-matching, so when my skin started to adjust to the tan I was getting, it became almost a whole 3 shades too dark/yellow. It had an odd scent to it, which I thought I'd mention for those of you who are particularly sensitive to that sort of thing. The bottle was so small, it only lasted for about a month before I had to get a new foundation. Keep in mind that this is my own personal experience, all I hear about from others is rave reviews about this product, and my skin is picky to begin with. So if you're still interested, give it a shot and tell me how it works for you!
If I had to compare this to a drugstore liquid foundation, it'd be Almay TLC  Truly Lasting Color. It's just as thick, with just as much cakeyness.

Rating: 2/5  

The next foundation I want to talk about is the Sephora Collection 10 Hour Wear Perfection which I purchased in shade 02 light porcelain. This product was the first liquid foundation that matched my skintone almost perfectly. After looking for something for months, I was increadibly pleased to find this foundation! The coverage was beautiful, from medium to full coverage with using very little product. My only qualm with it is that the foundation was quite heavy. Not heavy feeling, but heavy for your skin. My complexion didn't agree with this at all, it's taken me almost two months and I'm still struggling with unwanted blemishes. So unfortunately, I ended up having to ditch this product as well. However, as I said before, my skin is a little pickier than average, so perhaps this foundation will produce different results for you. That, and it also wore of my nose a little more easily than I would've liked. But you can only expect so much out of a foundation, I was simply happy it matched my skin color, got me through my performances with reasonable ease, and stayed on my face through days that Noah's Flood of sweat was not battering my skin. All in all? A good product, I was pleased. To equate this to a drugstore product, I'd have to say the Maybelline Fit me foundation is the only thing that comes close, but it's not a very good equivalent to this product because there are just so many elements in this particular base that you won't find in a drugstore counterpart.
Rating: 3/5

Now let's talk about Urban Decay's Naked Skin. 

Here I'm going to read you the product description strait from the Sephora website.
"This formula helps skin achieve a natural, illuminated and bright finish— like the beautiful skin you were born with. Naked Skin is formulated with light-diffusing spheres, transforming you to look professionally retouched. Buildable coverage allows women to customize their look. Available in a meticulously calibrated range of shades, Urban Decay’s precise shade numbering system does poetic justice to both warm tones (ending in “.0”) and cool skin tones (ending in “.5”). The finish is matte, never flat, and luminous, but not shiny."
Now this isn't claiming to do anything to spectacular, like stick to your skin for 24 hours or anything, it's simply claiming to be good for your skin; I'm going to go through all the promises listed in this particular quote and add my own comments on the reality of this product's performance.It's first claim to fame is that it's "formulated to help skin-." Considering that I found this product after my horrible breakouts while using the Sephora foundation, almost anything would've been an improvement. However, I did notice a significant decrease in my new found blemishes using this formula. My skin, overall did make a tremendous comeback, so I'd say that it definitely lives up to that promise.
"Buildable coverage-." Now this one I'd say is a bit of a stretch. With this foundation I found that the coverage was only light/medium at best. During exercise my face has a tendency to become quite red, and by observing how much redness breaks through the foundation, is one great way for me to approximate the coverage I'm getting with this base. This hid next to no redness, which is a problem especially for me, because I have to perform on stage, and all that extra strawberry-face is not gonna fly. But on the other hand, with a foundation that's so skin-friendly, how much heavier coverage can you get, realistically? Lets be real. So for that claim, I'd say it doesn't deliver.
"Available in a meticulously calibrated range of shades-." As I have mentioned before, my skin tone is a nightmare to match, so this sounds to me like a bit of a boast.  But it really isn't! This product did infact match my skin quite well, so I was very happy about that.
And last but not least "Matte finish, never flat, and luminous, but not shiny." This is probably the greatest truth about this foundation, the finish is a really silky sort of matte that I find I quite adore. So if you're picky about finish, and are searching for a very particular kind of end result, I recommend you wholeheartedly to this product.
I would, however, like to warn you about a few things that a lot of people find quite unappealing in a product.
This base has absolutely no stamina. I go to put it on in a given morning, and no more than 2 hours later, it's rubbed completely off my nose, cheeks and chin area. I usually don't do too much activity right after applying, I take special care to set it with a good powder, and reputable setting spray. Which leads me to my next largest complaint. No matter how great of a powder you use this with, it will cake like a bitch. I've used high-end powders, drugstore powders, minuscule amount of powder, or a bit more than I usually would, just for giggles. And nothing works. This, and the stamina issue, is why I definitely won't be repurchasing this product.
Rating: 3/5
You can expect in the next couple weeks a M.A.C/Sephora haul post! I'll be giving you my personal experiences with each product as I've used them, and recommend that you either pick it, or kick it! I can't wait to see what surprises me this month.
Ta-ta for now lovelies!
            God Bless.