Welcome to a new mini-series here on Blushing in Hollywood all about how to make and keep things sexy in your relationship. If you are single and dating these tips are also going to be very helpful. I think people can get in a rut where your partner starts to feel just like a buddy, but it’s important to keep the romance alive.
First of all, a clean home is a sexy home so this is going to take some work on your part. The good news is that it’s your home so you’ll reap the benefits even when the date is over!
I had so much fun getting vampy for Halloween this year that I wanted to share the details on my hair, makeup, costume, and accessories on the blog for you all.
Makeup:
I started off my costume hunt at the LA area beauty mecca Naimie’s Beauty Center. If you don’t know, Naimie’s is a two-story warehouse filled with wigs, drugstore and high end makeup (MAC, Makeup Forever, Lime Crime, Ben Nye, Red Cherry Lashes), hair products, special FX makeup, and more. It is an awesome place for beauty lovers. I bought the Ben Nye Vampire Kit for $18 that looks like this:
Ben Nye Vampire Kit
One of the guys there recommended I check out Halloween Town in Burbank because they had a surprisingly small selection of fangs at Naimie’s. The products I ended up using from this kit on the night of Halloween were the Vampire Character Base (which I was worried might be the color of my actual skin, but luckily it was lighter) and the mint flavored fake blood. I did use the other cream colors when practicing for my look a few nights beforehand, but didn’t end up using them in the end because they were harder to blend than the powder products I ended up using. If I was doing it over again I think I would just buy the blood and possibly the base. Here’s the video that inspired my practice run:
And here’s what the practice one looked like:
Vampire makeup trial run
For the makeup I ended up doing, I used Shaanxo’s video as inspiration:
What I wore to Sue Wong’s LA Style Fashion Week fashion show.
It’s almost time for Halloween so I wanted to give everyone some inspiration. I’m going to start with the scary/bloody/gory/creepy costumes because this year I’m dying to get into some fake blood myself.
American Horror Story
Many people have recommended this one to me and it’s super popular right now, but tbqh I’m still scared to watch it haha! Here’s some inspiration:
Desi Perkins does an amazing job on this American Horror Story Freakshow Inspired tutorial:
This is part 3 of Lilly Ghalichi’s makeup tips and tricks and includes eye makeup finishing touches, how to glow, and getting a perfect nude lip.
On 8/15/14 Lilly Ghalichi streamed a live makeup demo with her makeup artist Bria Valencia. This is part three of the tutorial. Be sure to check out part one and part two – they are FULL of amazing tips! In this post we will get into Lilly Ghalichi’s highlight as well as her gorgeous nude lip.
When I was in middle school I read a lot of women’s magazines- Cosmo, Allure, Glamour, etc. and they would often times have features on how to transform your makeup from day to night or how to take your look from the office to happy hour drinks. I used to think these articles were so dumb. Who couldn’t figure out this very simple task!? Put on more eye makeup- eyeliner, shadow, extra mascara, etc., a bold lip, a little perfume and bam you’re done.
Now that I’m a grown up and actually have to do this task I realize it can be very difficult. Most YouTube gurus and makeup artists will tell you to just wash your face and start all over again. Who has time for that!? Especially if you’re going on dates during the week you need to take your 6am makeup and transform it into date-ready 8pm makeup and FAST. I have yet to see a YouTube tutorial on how to do this (there are many where they do one makeup look and then immediately change the lip color and say now it’s a night look! But that leaves out the whole your foundation is coming off and everything is patchy problem).
I know my friends do this because we all joke about throwing on a “second coat of paint” which is to say we just put foundation on top of what we’re already wearing and start all over again. Sometimes this works great for me, other times it looks insanely heavy or patchy or accentuates my wrinkles. Here’s an example:
Friday nights call for a quick second coat of paint
Do I look terrible? No. Are all of the lines on my forehead and everywhere else accentuated? Yes. My face also turned out super white which made my blush and lips look all that much more intense. I still went out like this, but I didn’t feel great.
A few weeks ago I went to the Nordstrom Fall Beauty Event and asked my artist if he had any tips for me and he gave me a great one: use a different type of foundation than the one you used the first time. OMG brilliant!! This totally makes sense too! In the AM I tend to use a matte foundation so if I put another coat of that on top with powder it’s going to totally age me! Now I give my face a quick spritz of Mac Fix+ or the Boots Rosewater Spray I mentioned in my September favorites and then apply a luminous foundation like my Armani Luminous Silk right on top of the makeup I was previously wearing. From there I will apply concealer, bronzer, blush, more mascara, and a little powder to set everything. This has been an awesome little trick and I feel like it has really helped me.
I really like the 5 Love Languages which is a book that talks about how we all wish to receive love in different ways (words of affirmation, acts of service, receiving gifts, quality time, and physical touch) and that is the way that we are also most likely to show our love. The problem is when you and your partner don’t have the same primary love language and you’re doing all of these things for them in your favorite love language and you don’t feel appreciated because they still don’t seem fulfilled. For example you could be making them breakfast everyday, taking out the trash, running errands for them and they’re still complaining that you never want to spend time with them. You think you’re showing your love doing all of these acts of service, but what this person really craves is for you to be spending quality time with them.
One love language that’s hard for some people to learn is Words of Affirmation. It’s easy enough to compliment someone with a “you look nice”, but if they are constantly flooding you with compliments and you’re not used to saying so many yourself it can feel uncomfortable when there’s that pause after they finish and it’s your turn and you just say “…thanks…” This is especially true if you grew up with a family that didn’t constantly give Words of Affirmation so you feel lost as to what this person wants you to say and very awkward and forced when trying to do it yourself. I think that giving compliments or words of affirmation is a muscle that you can strengthen through practice. Yes it will feel a bit forced at the beginning, but the “forced” part should be saying how you truly feel so it should not feel fake or inauthentic just a little uncomfortable as you get used to something new. Even I don’t always feel comfortable saying how I feel so I understand your pain.
Here at Blushing in Hollywood I’m finally tackling how and where to apply blush!
This post was requested many weeks ago and I’ve watched tons of videos and tutorials to try to find just the right answer as to WHERE ARE WE “SUPPOSED” TO PUT BLUSH!? The answer was similar to the way I feel about many things in my life- wherever the fuck I want. Another question that came up when I started working on this post was am I actually better at applying blush now than I was a few years ago? Or do I just only get photographed with iPhones now (compared to digital cameras a few years ago) and all of the color is washed out of the pics making my heavy blush look normal? The world may never know. Let’s take a trip back to a few years ago:
My brother and I about 5 years ago. Also, a rare glimpse at my teeth.
Ah, Florida Lindsay. This was 5 years ago before I lived in LA and before I stopped tanning and bleaching my hair. Here I’m rocking a ton of bronzer on my cheeks (and all over my face for a nice natural Christmas Eve glow) and an intense blush. While I still apply my blush heavily and on the apples of my cheeks back all the way to my hair line, I noticed that I now do it in a different angle:
This arrow is showing the angle that I was applying my blush- more horizontal and only at a slight angle.
Find out how to remove every last bit of your makeup gently and efficiently and how to prevent staining towels with your makeup.
Ok I’m about to share some tips that I know first hand about 90% of my girlfriends don’t know because whenever they’re at my place and wash their faces all of a sudden I have two eyeball-sized black marks on my pink towels. I find taking my makeup off incredibly annoying and I think I lose about 30 minutes of sleep every night because I procrastinate getting ready for bed just because I dread it so much, but I ALWAYS do it. Here’s how I remove my makeup:
1. Remove foundation from face and neck with a nice soothing gentle makeup remover wipe. I will wipe my eyeshadow off with the wipe as well, but if some is left over that is fine. The wipes I use (and I mentioned in my August Favorites) are Boots No7 Quick Thinking Wipes and definitely get the value pack. These have a nice snap closure to keep them from drying out. I try to gently and slowly pull of my falsies if I’m wearing them and you can also put liquid eye makeup remover onto a cotton round and hold it on top of the falsies to loosen them up before removing them. These Boots No7 wipes say they will remove waterproof eye makeup, but I wear about 10 coats of mascara and if I try to remove it with these wipes I’d be in my bathroom all night scrubbing and when I was done I wouldn’t have any lashes left. Luckily I do know of a product that will do this for you in the next step!
2. I’ve tried many products that have burned the bee-jesus out of my eyeballs and it turns out the best makeup remover was in your grandma’s beauty cabinet this whole time:
Ponds Cold Cream Cleanser is a super gentle eyemakeup remover
Today’s post includes a video tutorial on how to get a big, voluminous, messy ponytail and how to make your own surf spray at home.
Today I have something a little different for you – a video tutorial! And this one is not of me, but my beautiful friend Marci. When I saw my sister in July she told me that Marci had taught her the secrets to the perfect pony and of course I HAD to know and I also wanted to share them with you all. So without further ado here it is:
