With warmer months finally here (Hooray!), I figured I'd give you my top tips for Long lasting liner.
Tired of putting liner on and having it travel all over your eyes?
Try these easy steps to making a foolproof, long wear liner.
RULE #1:Always seal a cream with a powder.
This is so crucial and can be applied to other areas of makeup as well (let's just keep focused for now though :))
Eyeliners come in an array of types.
There are Pencils, Cake Liners, Gel Liners, and of course Liquid Liners. All have their purpose for creating different looks, but all tend to travel onto your lids! Even one of my favorite waterproof go to's (Gel Liner), can move around on a client's eyes.
Here's what you do: After applying your cream product, take an angle hair brush, dip it into a matching (or close to matching) eye shadow color. Take the brush and use the edge to go over the cream product.
*Press and wiggle*
That's the trick. Gently press down (Gently! don't bend those bristles!), and give it a little wiggle to dispense the product in a controlled way. Take this all across the line you originally drew on.
Voila!
RULE #2:Use an eyeshadow primer.
On some smaller eyes, setting with a powder is just not enough! So it's important to prevent travel onto the lid or crease, to use an eyeshadow primer such as Too Faced or Urban Decay . Both of these are very good at keeping your eyeshadow on all day strong, as well as your liner.
Take a small amount of primer and evenly coat your lid--You can use your fingers, a sponge or a brush for this.
Then you'll want to set it with ... A POWDER! Use a setting powder if you have it. Otherwise wait a moment for it to dry a bit and go for the eyeshadows.
I suggest using these primers rather than just a foundation/concealer coating or a naked eye because they have an anti-creasing formula that creates a barrier between your skin's natural oils and the makeup products. So your eye products become smudge proof! Which is what we want!
Give it a try the next time you go for a bold liner.
It's been a while since I've posted any sort of tutorial, so I figured it was about time to get one up here! And to make it more interesting, it's a hair tutorial!
I am constantly fighting very fine, limp, straight hair. I thought I'd share how I get super voluminous, bouncy, shiny hair with an at home blow out!
Here's what you need:
Round brush, Velcro Rollers, small clips, Alligator clip, Blow Dryer with a nozzle.
Side notes...
Round Brush:Size of the brush depends on your hair length as well as the amount of wave/curl you want. I like a loose wave, so I'm using a medium sized brush. My hair is also pretty long. If you have shorter hair or desire a more curled look, go for a smaller brush.
Velcro Rollers: I LOVE velcro rollers! While they may take some getting used to.. (you do not want to get tangled up in these! Ouch!), they give a big lift to limp hair. If you don't have velcro rollers, you could just roll the sections of hair by hand and place a clip.
Products:
L to R: L'Anza Keratin Healing Oil Combing Cream, L'Anza Healing Volume Hair Spray, Amika Bombshell Spray Blowout.
Side notes...
You'll definitely need a heat protectant in your hair!
The L'Anza Combing Cream is great because it fights frizz, protects against the heat, reduces drying time and keeps hair smooth and silky. I highly recommend this product, but if you don't have it, any sort of heat protectant cream or spray will do.
Root Spray: I'm using the Amika and I LOVE it! But any root lifting spray or even mousse will work well. You just need a little product to help lift those roots!
Let's get started!
The best way is to start with wet hair...
Very sad hair :/
This is where you'll add in your heat protectant and root lifting spray.
I'm using L'Anza's Healing Oil Combing Cream, and Amika's Bombshell Spray Blowout.
You'll want to start with the combing cream all over your hair from the base to the ends. This will help control frizz as well as decrease the drying time. It's MAGIC!
Then go through and hit the roots with the Amika Spray. This stuff is amazing! It gives so much volume and lift! Be sure not to spray too close to the roots, you should have at least 6 inches from the bottle to the hair.
If your hair is super wet, you'll want to give your hair a rough dry (without the nozzle). I usually just put my head upside down and blow dry for a few minutes until it's about 60% dry.
Now you'll apply the nozzle on the blow dryer.
I like to section the hair to keep it out of my way while I'm blow drying. So I'll usually run my finger around the my head sectioning off the bottom part from the top.
Clip it into place.
Grab your round brush!
Take a small/medium section of hair and place the brush tight against the roots, lifting the hair up.
Take your blow dryer on the hot setting, and I usually have it on the stronger setting so it dries a little faster-- and you'll place the dryer just above the hair starting at the roots. Work the brush down the hair to the ends, following with the dryer.
Slowly roll the brush down to the ends and back up to the roots, following with the hair dryer. Once you roll back up to the roots (as pictured above), you'll blast with cool air and then gently unroll the brush and follow with a velcro roller.
Continue this process around the rest of the bottom layer.
Unclip the top section of hair and if you need to do a second layer, do so. I usually like to leave the last section down the middle-- like a mohawk :)
Once you get to the mohawk section, I work my way from the back of the head to the front. Following the same pattern as before.
Now that your whole head is covered in rollers (or rolled sections of hair),
Spray a lightweight, aerosol hairspray.
And now we wait...
You just need to wait until the hair is completely cool.
This is a great time to answer those emails or work on your makeup...
Once it's cool, you can start pulling out those pesky rollers!
It looks crazy at first...
But trust me!
From here you just want to run your fingers through it to get rid of any weird separation and to tame it into the shape you want. You may also need to place a new part if you lost it along the way :)
You may want to hit it once more with some hair spray when you get it where you want it. You also have the option to tease the roots a bit for some added lift that lasts.
I opted to skip the teasing and just spritz lightly with some hairspray.
Va Va Voom Hair!
There you have it!
It may seem like a lot of steps, but it's worth it. When I'm not recording the process, it takes me about 20 minutes to do.
So give it a shot! Save that $$$ on blow dry bars and use it for a cocktail out with your bouncy new hair :)
We've all been there... we wake up in the morning to find a massive red zit on our faces! And of course, as luck has it, it's usually on a very important day.
Wedding, a party, a date, picture day!
With something so common (everyone breaks out!) it's important to know how to properly take care of covering this issue. Many try to overcompensate by using LOTS of product. This is only going to attract more attention to the blemish. More Makeup = More Staring
That's no good!
So here are some tips for covering that baby the RIGHT way.
1. Treat it don't Pop it!
If you can, do your best to keep your paws off! The less you touch it, the better off you'll be. So if you're waking up to this, and you're on the way out, be sure to start by cleaning your hands and your skin. Then if you have a leave on treatment, apply it before makeup and after your moisturizer. YES.
You will need to moisturize. Your skin needs to be hydrated regardless of your skin type.
2. Use as little product as possible!
One of the tricks of makeup is, Less is More.
And it's so true.
If you plan to wear a full face of makeup, start with your foundation to cover what you can. Then go in with your lightweight concealer. Take a very thin, flat concealer brush and gently dip into your concealer. I highly suggest a creamy concealer-- nothing too chalky or hard or cakey. I love Nars Radiant Creamy Concealers!
Gently, using the tip of your brush, create little X's over the pimple. Do this several times in different directions (so the X's overlap), until covered.
3. Set it!
With a very lightweight powder, take a little on a fluffy brush (an eyeshadow brush works well) and gently tap some powder on top to set the makeup. If you've done it right, it should be covered without calling attention, and if you need a little extra concealer, it shouldn't be a problem to gently tap a little extra on after powder.
So easy! Just remember to not get frustrated, and as always, it's usually never as noticeable to others as you may think! These things are always bigger in our own eyes ;)
Another tip to help, depending on where your blemish is, try to accentuate the feature that is not close by. For example:
Say you have a zit on your chin. You probably don't want to wear bright red lips that day as it will... A) accentuate any redness you may have in that area
and B) attract others eyes to that part of your face.
So it'd be best to play up your eyes that day. Go for a winged liner or some shadows. You want to make sure your focal point is directed away from the blemish :)
Hope this helps! Be sure to keep this in mind the next time you're mid freak out when you find that annoying pimple :) You can cover it!
So something recently came to my attention while working at a wedding this weekend. I had a bride who was concerned at our makeup preview about the eye makeup staying on. She claimed, no matter how much eye primer she puts on, her eyeliner still travels!
Sound familiar??
If this is you, look no further. I'm here to help!
Some of you may be thinking, what is an eye primer??
While others may swear by it (I'm one of those!), let me tell you everything you need to know about this product and how to assure that it WILL work!
1. What is an Eye Primer?
An eyeshadow primer is a great great product that is used as a base for your eyeshadow. I think this is such a wonderful tool in your kit if you need long wearing eye makeup. It helps to lock shadows in place as well as prevent moving, smudging, creasing and increases longevity.
The part that gets complicated is what products you are pairing with the primer. My bride claimed she used the primer but still had her eyeliner move on her! No matter how much primer she used, she still ended up with the liner at her crease.... which brings me to...
2. Use the right products.
Turns out, my bride uses an eyeliner crayon.
Anything that is super creamy can still move and crease, even with the primer. While it may be less moving or creasing, it can still happen over a long period of time.
So to prevent that, you can try topping it with an eyeshadow of the same color to lock it in. Or you can opt for a different type of liner.
Gels are wonderful!
*and my favorite!*
They are so versatile, you can create a smooth clean line with them or smudge them out for a soft, smokey eye. The best part about them is that they are waterproof and won't budge once they are set. Liquids and long wearing pencils are great too :)
3. Which primers work?
There are a couple brands that have great eye primers! Some even come in a shade or with some iridescence-- which I've used if I'm in a hurry and want to brighten my eyes.
Here are my favorites...
Too Faced Shadow Insurance
$20
*Photo c/o HSN.com
I've been using this stuff for years! I use it for all my clients, of all skin tones and it works wonders! Nothing travels, moves, or creases with this stuff. A small dollop goes a long way- be sure to apply a thin layer and you're good to go. They also have a couple versions, one for glitter, one with shimmer, etc. But the classic is great.
Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion
$20
*Photo c/o urbandecay.com
This is another great no budge primer! They have a few different shades that work beautifully. Sometimes, on my lazy days, I'll take their shadow primer in Minor Sin and apply it all over my lid to brow-- follow with some mascara and call it a day! It's perfect for warm weather days when you just need a quick pick me up without breaking out the shadows and liners!
Aside from my lazy hack ;) This stuff works wonderfully at holding things in place all day.
I hope this helped you to understand eye shadow primers and their importance/role in the makeup world! If you have a favorite primer, feel free to share in the comments!
