My Foundation Routine!!

HOWDY HO BABES!

I get asked all the time about my foundation routine, so I thought I would do an updated step by step guide of what I do and what works for me. Please note I am aware that this might seem like a lot of makeup for some but I like it so, that’s that! If you would like to see how I achieve this, then read on my loves!

~ PREP AND PRIME ~

For me this is one of the most IMPORTANT steps to having a flawless face and I do this on both myself and all my clients. By doing this it really helps make the makeup last all day and night 🙂 Firstly you need to understand your skin type so know you know how best to prep and prime your skin. For me, my skin is on the dry side so I prep my skin by rehydrating it with my holy grail moisturizer combo of Embryolisse 24 Hour Miracle Cream, and Bobbi Brown’s Hydrating Face Cream. I Let that sink in for about 5 minutes (this is where I usually go and do my eyes, and then come back and finish off my face). To prime my face I apply Hourglass’s Veil Mineral Primer and then apply my favourite illuminizer, MAC’s Strobe Cream.

~ FOUNDATION APPLICATION~

I am a HUGE fan of actually mixing different foundations. It’s rare to find or expect one foundation to give you the exact colour or coverage you want or so, I am always experimenting and trying out different combos. Currently this is the one that I am really digging… Taking my new fave liquid foundation by Make Up Store in the colour Honey (which doesn’t appear to be on their site however, if you contact the store directly then they can make arrangements to ship to you. Click here for the store closest to you) together with EX1 Cosmetics Invisiwear Liquid Foundation in the colour 200 (or 300 if I am more tanned or have some fake tan on). I take two pumps of the Makeup Store foundation and one pump of the EX 1 foundation, mix it together and apply all over my face with my trusty Beauty Blender.

~ CONCEAL AND HIGHLIGHT ~

To conceal my dark circles I take NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer by NARS in the shade Honey and place this directly under my eyes in a “C”shape. To highlight my face I take the same concealer but in the shade Ginger and place it under where I placed the Honey shade, under my eyes  in an upside down triangle shape. I then take this colour down the bridge of my nose and up to my forehead and a little on my upper lip and chin. To blend this all out I use my Beauty Blender, again 🙂

~ SETTING AND CONTOURING ~

To set my concealer I use The Chisler Brush by Hair and Makeup Addiction with Chanel’s Le Blanc Fresh Glow Loose Brightening Powder. As I am naturally dry I prefer a dewy look so I don’t like to use a lot of powder, so, to set the rest of my face I use another Make Up Store product, their Micronized Compact Powder in Latte (again not on the website so if you want to contact your closest store – click here).  To apply this I use the Blush Brush by Real Techniques and gently pat it over the foundation. To contour and carve out some cheek bones I use the NARS Ita Kabuki Brush and Too Faced Chocolate Soliel Matte Bronzer with my MAC 168 Large Angled Contour Brush.

~ BLUSH, GLOW AND SET ~

For my blush I use MAC’s Mineralize Blush the shade Warm Soul as it’s a mid tone beige colour with gold pearl in it. Tried to find this on the Australian MAC website but for some reason it’s not there, yet I know for a fact that you can buy in store. To apply this is I take a clean MAC 168 Large Angled Contour Brush. To help add a little more glow to my skin I take my Hourglass Ambient Lighting powder in the shade Luminous Light and my Sigma F35 Tapered Highlighter Brush and place it under my eyes where I highlighted earlier with my concealer. I then take The Multitasker by Hair and Makeup Addiction Finishing and Mary-Lou Manizer by The Balm and highlight the bridge of my nose and a little into my forehead. To finish it off and set my face I take MAC’s Fix Plus Spray and spritz my face a few times all over, let that dry – ANNNNNNNND… BAM I’M READY TO GO! Hahaha!

Ok so there you have it, that is my full faced, every day foundation routine. Pretty easy I think, so hope you like and if you have any questions or comments I would love to hear from you.

Much love, till next time xoxo

Bronzed Glow like J Lo

HEYA!

So I don’t know about you but I have major girl crush on J Lo (still love calling her that) – how could I not – her style, figure, personality and her flawless face. So if you want to see how I did this – read on…

… E  Y  E  S …

~ STEP 1 ~

First I start off by priming my eyes as always with my Shadow Insurance by Too Faced and then with MAC’s Paint Pot in Soft Ochre. Setting this with a mixture of Beaches and Cream and Peach Smoothie both by Makeup Geek all over my lid and up to my brow bone. Then, taking Soft Brown by MAC on my Sigma E40 Tapered Blending Brush I blend this into my crease and just above as this will be my transition colour.

~ STEP 2 ~

To darken up my crease further, I take Texture by MAC on an Sigma E25 Blending Brush and blend that into my crease. Repeating until it is as dark as I want it to be.

~ STEP 3 ~

Taking Cocoa Bear by Makeup Geek I apply it to my outer V and blend into my crease with my Sigma E45 Small Tapered Blending Brush and again repeating until it is as dark as I want.

~STEP 4~

Taking Tan Pigment by MAC and apply on my lids using my MAC 242 Shader Brush to blend it out till it becomes a nice glow.

~STEP 5~

Now you could stop here but I wanted to make it a touch darker. So, taking Embark by MAC I apply that to the outer V with my Sigma E45 Small Tapered Blending Brush and blend it directly to my outer V keeping extending it out to help enlarge the eye.

~ STEP 6 ~

Here I curl my lashes using my MAC Full Lash Curler and then coat my lashes with a combination of In Extreme Dimension Lash by MAC and Bobbi Brown Smokey Eye Mascara. Let that dry for a few minutes. Again, you could also stop here or you could apply some false lashes. I chose to go ahead and apply No. 43 lashes by MAC wtih DUO Adheasive. While that is drying I apply a light coat of Cocoa Bear by Makeup Geek under my lower lashe line and heavily coat my lower lashes with Bobbi Brown Smokey Eye Mascara and TADAAAA! My eyes are done! Now onto the base…

… F  A  C  E  …

For me this is the REAL feature of this look. I really wanted to emulate J Lo’s bronzed glowing skin. So here is what I did and used to achieve that.

~ STEP 1 ~

As my skin is on the dry side I start by priming my face with Embryolisse 24 Hour Miracle Cream, and Bobbi Brown’s Hydrating Face Cream. I Let that sink in for about 5 minutes and then finish priming my face by applying Hourglass’s Veil Mineral Primer and then apply my favourite illuminizer, MAC’s Strobe Cream.

~ STEP 2 ~

Taking my new favourite liquid foundation by Make Up Store in the colour Honey and mixing in their TO DIE FOR Illuminizer. It doesn’t say what the shade is but as you can see from the pic below it is a bronzed shade and I’m fairly certain its the only one they have. It also doesn’t appear to be on their site however they said that if you contact the store directly then they can make arrangements to ship to you. Click here for the store closes to you. So, taking about 2 pumps of the foundation and a small pump of the illuminizer and mix it together and apply all over my face with my trusty Beauty Blender.

~ STEP 3 ~

Taking my holy grail concealer – Radiant Creamy Concealer by NARS in the shade Honey and place this directly under my eyes. Taking the same concealer in the colour Ginger I place this just under my eyes and then taking the same concealer but in the shade Ginger I apply that in an upside down triangle shape under my eyes, down the bridge of my nose and up to my forehead and a little on my chin. Taking my Beauty Blender I blend all that out. To set this I use Chanel’s Le Blanc Fresh Glow Loose Brightening Powder.

~ STEP 4 ~

Taking another Make Up Store product, their Micronized Compact Powder in Latte and set my foundation. I don’t like to use a lot of powder as I am naturally dry and I want this to be a particularly dewy look. So I usually prefer to apply this with a big fluffy face brush and pat that over where it’s needed. To contour my face I use Too Faced Sun Bunny Bronzer with my MAC 168 Large Angled Contour Brush – I like this bronzer for this look as it helps add a further glow and bronzed look to the skin.

~ STEP 5  ~

For my blush I use MAC Mineralize Blush the shade Love Joy as it’s a warm mid tone brown shade with gold pearl in it. I tried to find this on the Australian MAC website but for some reason it’s not there anymore yet I know for a fact that you can buy in in store. Taking my Hourglass Ambient Lighting powder in the shade Luminous Light and my Sigma F35 Tapered Highlighter Brush and place that where I highlighted earlier with my concealer. Finishing off by setting my face using Make Up Store’s Face Mist Spray which can actually double up as a prepping agent for your skin or to set your makeup. Like I mentioned earlier this doesn’t appear on their site but if you check the store locator for the closest one to you they will ship to you.

And I’m done!

So, that is my take on J Lo’s bronzed summer glow. What do you think? Let me know, I would love to hear from you…

Till next time xoxo

 

 

Tis the season to be jolly…

Hey my loves!

I know its been a while since I last posted but there has been a lot happening – I moved house, left my job and am currently deciding on what exactly my future holds for me – career wise. So yes, the head has been a little full of other less creative things. However, someone who I care about mentioned to me he hadn’t seen me post much lately about my makeup business or anything on my blog and that in fact miss seeing me be excited about it – and you know what? I agreed 100%. So having that one simple conversation really revved my creative juices up and… I’m back baby! OH YEAH!

So here we go… As we all know its coming up to the “silly season” where we are all getting invitations thrown at us left right and centre. I know we all have our go to looks, but in my opinion now is the time to try adding a pop of colour you might not have worn before, slapping on a bold lip – or dare I say it… adding some glitter? Just promise me you wont do all three 😉 Over the next couple of weeks I’ll post various different looks and hopefully you can get some inspiration from them and replicate it or make it your own.

I was recently given (very generously) as a farewell present from my old work, one set from the Objects of Affection Holiday Collection by MAC Cosmetics. It is the Silver + Blue + Pigments + Glitter colours. So using one of my new pigments from this range in combination with some other MAC eyeshadow’s… here is the look I came up with. This is perfect for any night-time event/Xmas party.

~ STEP 1 ~

As aways we prime the eye… I am using a combination of Too Faced Shadow Insurance with MAC’s Paintpot in Painterly over the top. This combination is my go to for me AND all my clients. The Shadow Insurance helps prevent that nasty creasing you get if, like me, you have hooded eyes and Painterly helps block out any veins you might see on your lid and gives you a clean canvas to work with. Next taking a big fluffy blending brush, I like to use my Sigma E40 Tapered Blending Brush and I take a mixture of Peach Smoothie and Beaches and Cream by Makeup Geek and blend that all over my lid and up to my brow bone.

~ STEP 2 ~

Taking my Sigma E25 Blending Brush and a mixture of the shades Creme Brulee by Makeup Geek and Bamboo by MAC I place it directly into my crease blending upwards (until it is seemless) as this will be our transition shade.

~ STEP 3 ~

To darken my crease, and add some dimension I take the shade Handwritten by MAC and my Sigma E45 Small Tapered Blending Brush and place this directly into my crease and blending till there are no harsh lines. By placing a dark shade here and bending into the earlier placed colours it will make the transition of the dark colour we are going to use next much easier.

~ STEP 4 ~

Now, here is my favourite part… the pigment. As I mentioned earlier I got some new pigments from the Holiday Collection, so from that set I am taking the colour Deep Blue Green. The photos do not do this colour justice. It reminds me of MAC’s Blue Brown Pigment, in that it isn’t just one shade, in different lights it look quite green, or blue or beautiful mixture of both. Anyway, here I used my Sigma F70 Concealer Brush to pack it on strong all over my lid in small patting motions so as to keep the colour intense rather than blending it out. Make sure you don’t take this colour up into the crease as we want to keep the transition of colours we placed earlier smooth and visible otherwise you will simply look like Uncle Fester.

~ STEP 5 ~

Then taking that same E45 Small Tapered Blending Brush simply blend the crease shade and the top of where the pigment was place and the two will blend together seemlessly. Now you need to curl your lashes (or not if you don’t want to) and apply your mascara. Here i am actually using a combination of MAC’s Extreme Dimension Lash in Black Extreme and Bobbi Brown’s Smokey Eye Mascara in Black.

~ STEP 6 ~

After I’ve applied my foundation and the rest of my face makeup I take my MAC 214 Short Shader Brush and apply Cocoa Bear by Makeup Geek along my lower lash line – using a clean MAC 239 Eye Shader Brush to blend it out.  Taking Deep Blue Green Pigment again and my Liner brush by Hair and Makeup Addiction I use my Fix Plus spray to help intensify the colour and carefully line right underneath my lower lash line.

~ STEP 7 ~

To brighten up my inner corner I use another pigment from the collection called White. I apply this with my Detailer brush (from the Special Eyes Kit) by Hair and Makeup Addiction and place it directly in the inner corners of my eyes blending it out using my Sigma E36 Blending Brush.

~ TO FINISH ~

I applied a generous coat of mascara to my bottom lashes and hey presto, you’re ready to go and show off those peepers… You could always add some falsies if you wanted too but I don’t like to wear them too much.

So tell me, what did you think of this look? Would you be game to show this off at your next Holiday party?

Till next time

xoxo