Today’s post and video are about everyone’s least favorite part about makeup- cleaning your brushes! In this video I show you 3 different ways that I clean mine. They are:
Is the Solid Blendercleanser just an overpriced tiny bar of soap? Probably, but I used to rub my first beauty blender on a bar of Dove soap thinking it was the same thing and I tore it up VERY quickly which is why I purchased the Blendercleanser this time.
I also discovered how useful it was when I was traveling. I feel like vacation is the only time I have the opportunity to go ALL OUT with my makeup. Cleaning smokey jade eye shadow and glitter out of brushes is a must! It also won’t leak in your bag and you don’t have to worry about the TSA limits on carry-on liquids. Continue reading “How I Clean My Makeup Brushes”
Today I have another new video for you! I filmed this a couple weeks ago while I was getting ready for a first date. It shows me going from my work clothes to first date ready. I thought it would be fun to combine the beauty + dating info. I hope you like it! Please don’t forget to subscribe, like, comment, share etc. so I can reach more people 🙂
Lauren Curtis, a makeup artist and YouTube beauty guru, recently posted a video this week about how to remove makeup in front of boys that turned out to be a bit controversial:
Today marks the release of another Anastasia Beverly Hills product that I think is going to be super hot- her liquid lipsticks. Liquid lipsticks have gained in popularity over the past few months and the formulas are just getting better and better. Liquid lipsticks are great because they can be easily painted onto the lips sans liner like a gloss and then dry to a nice matte finish and are usually super long lasting. They can also be layered with lipsticks or glosses to help the lips stay more moisturized. I have 2 of the Stila Stay All Day Liquid Lipsticks and have been loving them:
Stila Stay All Day Liquid Lipstick in Beso
Stila Stay All Day Liquid Lipstick in Bellissima
Here’s the 20 brand new Anastasia Beverly Hills liquid lipsticks:
So now that I’ve had a chance to use my purchases from the 2014 Sephora VIB sale I wanted to give a quick review on them and let you know what I think. I especially wanted to get this up because Sephora sent out another perk for VIB members which is $20 off your purchase of $50 or more and the holidays are coming up so I’m sure you want to know what gifts are worth it.
1. Smashbox Photo Finish Pore Minimizing Foundation Primer ($39) – So far I’m happy with this little guy. The product is a little thick so you have to warm it up on your finger tips before you apply it. You then want to kind of push and roll your fingers into your skin to best cover your pores. When I’ve applied it and look in the mirror there’s no huge “WOW where have my pores gone!?” reaction, but it feels silicon-ey and smooth and blurs your face a tiny bit. The main thing I like about it is that I think it controls my oily skin without making my face too dry which is a delicate balance. My foundation maybe looks slightly better on top of this vs. without it, but it’s not anything that a slower more intentional application of the foundation couldn’t replicate or beat. It maybe keeps my makeup on a tiny bit longer as well, but again no huge day and night transformation. It’s supposed to last for up to eight hours, but I usually have my makeup on for about 12-14 hours per day. Overall I’d recommend this if you’re oily, if you’ve liked Smashbox primers in the past, and if you aren’t counting on it to change your life. It would also be good if you’re sweating or somewhere that’s humid because it’s supposed to be resistant to those things.
2. Sephora Cream Lip Stain in 07 Dark Berry ($13) – I got this because I want to be Samantha aka ssssamanthaa on Instagram from Batalash (see video below), but instead I look like I’m failing miserably at trying to look like Lorde. I’ve only worn this around the house to try it because it is BOLD as hale. It smells really nice like the Stila Stay All Day Lip Colors a nice cake scent. It stayed pretty well and I don’t remember my lips feeling too dry and crispy. I hope I’m brave enough to wear it out into the world one day, but we’ll see. The color is really cool and I’d recommend it if you want to try something new and fun I just don’t know if I’m cool enough to rock it yet.
3. L’Occitane Voyage En Provence Set ($39) – Ugh I haven’t used all of the products in this set so far, but so far I’m super disappointed. I had very high expectations for this especially for the famous She Butter Ultra Rich Body Lotion and it was nothing special. The scent was whatever and it’s not super thick or long lasting or curative to very dry skin or anything like I was expecting. I would not recommend this and I’m wary of buying more products from L’Occitane now even though so many people are obsessed! I’d recommend this to no one because I hate it and I’m pissed. The more I think about it and write about it the more I think wow why am I not returning this to Sephora I don’t need products to travel with so desperately that I need to keep this $39 set!
4. Urban Decay Naked Skin Weightless Ultra Definition Liquid Makeup in color 2.0 ($39) – I knew this guy was not going to be the perfect fit because it’s a luminous light weight virtually invisible foundation and deep down I’m a full coverage kind of girl. It’s very thin and fluid-like and reminds me of the bareMinerals bareSkin Pure Brightening Serum Foundation in that it’s luminous and nice for a day that you want to look natural and take a break from full cake face mode. This would probably work better for me at night because when I wear these luminous foundations during the day I get oily and then they’re a mess, but the problem is that I want full coverage when I go out at night. This does have build able coverage though which is good. I need to experiment with it a bit more to figure out how it can work best for me. I wish it had sunscreen in it. I’d recommend this to someone that wants to look younger (a more sheer, luminous foundation will make you look younger than a matte full coverage one), someone that already has pretty good skin and doesn’t need a ton of coverage, and someone with dry, normal, or combo skin.
5. Urban Decay Good Karma Optical Blurring Brush ($25) – This is a vegan brush that was developed to work with the Naked Skin foundation and overall I like it a lot. It blends out the makeup quickly and evenly. I have used it with both the super thin Naked Skin foundation and the super thick BECCA foundation. I’m back to using my tried and true Beauty Blender, but when I mix it up I love using this guy. I’d recommend it to someone looking for a good foundation brush to use with liquid foundation. I think the price point on this is great and very reasonable for the quality.
6. BECCA Ultimate Coverage Complexion Creme in Buff ($44) – YASSSSSSS hunny. I am absolutely loving this foundation and I’m using it everyday and at night for going out as well. It is super full coverage and gives you a very flawless finish. I normally use a generous amount of foundation so when I accidentally put two whole pumps on my beauty blender and then went to blend it out and I was wearing a serious mask (which was fine for that day, but meant I don’t need to use as much in the future because it’s so pigmented). This foundation is easy to blend but the only thing you have to look out for is once it dries (relatively quickly in 1-3 minutes) it is DRY and SET so don’t try to blend it out again because you will just mess it up. This foundation lasts me all day and/or night long and keeps me relatively matte without drying me out too much. Once it’s on it doesn’t feel super heavy or cakey which is nice for how full coverage and pigmented it is. I spent at least an hour trying to figure out online which color to get in this and while I like to think I picked the best match I do definitely have to blend it very well down my neck and blend very very well if I’m wearing my hair up. This foundation color is also super yellow which I like because I think it balances out my redness, but I know not everyone likes super yellow foundation. I would recommend this to anyone that is looking for a full coverage foundation with great coverage and staying power who has normal to oily skin. This is my favorite thing I bought. This price tag is a little high, but I’m hoping that since it’s so pigmented that I will use less and it will last me longer (fingers crossed!) Here’s a pic of me wearing it:
Pic I posted on Insty of me wearing BECCA Ultimate Coverage Complexion Creme www.blushinginhollywood.com
Ok so when you give a gift you probably don’t want people thinking it’s “cheap”, but I guarantee any beauty enthusiast would be super excited to receive one or a few of these very inexpensive products. First of all they are trendy- Morphe brushes, Maybelline Divine Wine Lipstick, Colour Pop lippies, and NYX Soft Matte Lip Creme in Copenhagen are all very popular items right now. They’re practical- who doesn’t need another makeup brush holder, a travel makeup bag, a compact mirror, or an extra set of wispy false eyelashes? And they sparkle because gifts should be fun. I will be posting a few more of these so let me know if you have any requests for gift guides! Continue reading “Cheap Holiday Gifts For Makeup Lovers”
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:
It’s monthly favorites time and this month I’m talking about some amazing life-changing skin care products, the perfect red lip, how to look airbrushed, and more.
Hey y’all I’m back! I hope you’re recovering from Halloween nicely. I had a really awesome time and I’m going to do a post with details about my costume pretty soon. Although I’ve been a little lighter on the posting this month I’ve definitely had a LOT of ideas for upcoming posts and I’m always buying new products and testing them out “for research for the blog” wink wink. Seriously though, sometimes I do sit at my computer with Laneige BB Cushion foundation on the left half of my face only to see how long it lasts and if it stays dewy or becomes even more wet looking with time. The answer is that stuff never dried so if you want the dewiest face in the universe check it out at Target. I also spent a LOT of time reading reviews on one of the best sites out there MakeupAlley to find out what people thought about different products I was thinking about buying and to check out the products on the Best Value list. This website is a phenomenal resource if you’re ever on the fence about purchasing a product or want more information on it. Ok now let’s move on to MY favorites/reviews/recommendations for the month of October!
Before I even get to the beauty products I will let you know that the middle sparkly pumpkin was from Home Goods I believe and the two minis are real pumpkins from Trader Joes. The one on the left is painted gold with a really cool product called Rub and Buff and the right one is just painted white. Both of the stems are coated in gold glitter. My very crafty roommate made these and they looked great.
1. House of Lashes False Lashes in Iconic ($12 or 3 for $30) pictured with the House of Lashes Eyelash Adhesive ($8) – I have already talked about how much I love this lash adhesive back in my February favorites, but for a re-cap it’s latex-free and I think that’s why my eyes no longer water non-stop when I wear falsies. It’s easy to work with and apply with the brush, it dries quickly and invisibly, and it’s strong and long lasting. I bought the Iconic lashes during a Labor Day sale on the HoL website and finally got around to wearing them this past month and I love them! These are very bold, dense synthetic lashes that add nice drama. I’ve already re-used a pair with no issues. The only problem with these lashes is because they are the Premium Luxe line and have a multi-layered design they have to have a thicker band in order to hold all of those lashes together. This means that you pretty much have to wear black eyeliner on your top lid in order to hide the band, but that’s not a huge issue for my because chances are if I want this much drama I’m already rocking a big old wing up top. Here’s me getting pouty with them last weekend:
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.
