Brows for the Win

Recently brows have become my favorite thing on my face.  Forget the eyes, nose, or lips, brows are where it's at.  Hollywood has given us some amazing examples of Brow Divas over the years: Katherine, Liz, and Audrey being my personal favorites...am I right??

Recently, brows have begun to make a comeback and I couldn't be more thrilled!!  New Brow Divas like Megan Fox and Kate Upton are giving us some brows to keep our eyes on!

Let's start with the shape of the brow.  The rule used to be that the brow should start directly up from the inside corner of the eye and should stop at a 45 degree angle away from the outside corner.  But brows are getting longer...slightly.  Don't get crazy, I'm not backing a uni-brow here, just saying that keeping the brow a little longer on the outside gives the face a softer, more romantic look.  Also, a soft arch is a gorgeous shape...mimicking, but just short of the arch of the ocular bone.  Lastly, don't get those babies too thin, we don't want to look like we're from south Texas.  

Once you have your shape down, it's time to define.  It's amazing what a difference defining the brow makes in the overall appearance of the face.  Get thee to a retailer of fine eyebrow pencils.  My two favorites are the Anastasia Brow Wiz because it has an incredibly fine point and has a large selection of colors and the Smashbox Brow Tech to Go because, although it only comes in two colors, it has an angled roll-up tip and setting gel.  There are other brow products on the market, powders and gels, but I prefer a pencil to get the Megan Fox/Kate Upton brow.  Choose a color the shade of your natural brow or slightly darker...again, we're not aiming for south Texas brows.

Anastasia Brow Wiz...note the spoolie on the bottom

Start by outlining the top and bottom  on the inner half of the brow, literally draw a line on the top and bottom, now fill in between those lines with short, hair like strokes.  Now draw a line enclosing the inside of the brown.  None of this should be harsh...light lines but enough to give you definition, you can go a little heavy here if you want to, we're going to lighten it up later.  Quick tip: stand back from the mirror when you're doing this, if not, when you do step back you're more likely than not going to have two giant caterpillars drawn on your face.  Next, take your pencil and, with those same short hair-like strokes, fill in the outer half of the brow.  This part doesn't have to be as rigidly defined but does need to be well filled in.  Finally, take a spoolie (the brush that looks like a mascara wand) and brush through the brow, from the inside-out.  This not only keeps the hairs in place, if you bear down on it it will distribute the product and give your amazing brows the perfect finishing touch.

Voila, you now have perfect brows.  Wear them with fabulosity!! 

Makeup Alley Love

Have you heard of Makeup Alley?  No?  Well, you should have heard of it because it's awesome.  You might be familiar with the more recent (and more popular) Beautylish, which has a much better app, but that's a post for another time. 

On a side note, I have been trying to upload two pictures to Instagram, for them to sell and not pay me for, for an hour and they WILL NOT LOAD.  I am going to scream.  It's Christmas Eve Eve and I'm going to scream at Instagram.  Next time you're sad, just imagine me screaming at my iPhone in front of the Christmas tree because Instagram refuses to cooperate and you are sure to feel better.  Moving on...

Makeup Alley was the first website that I ever used to look up consumer reviews of cosmetics, bath and body, and fragrance.  I love, love, love it!!  There are thousands of products reviewed on the site, with popular products having hundreds of reviews each.  I also love that the reviewer lists their age, skin type, eye and hair color next to their reviews so the reader can take this into account when considering the review.  Do I care what a ninety-five year old woman with extra-dry skin thinks about an oil-free moisturizer that is only designed to give a bit of hydration to normal/combo skin types?  Not so much.  The reviews have been particularly helpful to me when I'm looking to purchase a bigger ticket item like a Clarisonic or my Babyliss straightener.  I'm sure as heck not going to pay $150 for a hair straightener that half of the people who own them say doesn't heat after six months!  I also love to read the reviews to compare similar-ish products.  It really helps to make an educated guess as to which one will be the best for me.  I used this most recently when deciding which luminizer to buy to mix with my matte full-coverage foundations.  If you haven't been in the market lately for luminizers, there are plenty to choose from, let me tell you.  Stila, LORAC, Smashbox....just to name a few.  I ended up choosing the Artificial Light from Smashbox and love it, by the way. 

Obviously, there are a zillion places to find consumer reviews online...but wait, there's more at Makeup Alley!  There is also a swap section where you can swap with other beauty junkies!  No selling here, just swapping.  I reach point break every so often and go on a swapping binge to get rid of the overwhelming crap-ton of stuff I have AND I get new happies to play with.  Like now for instance...I want matte lipsticks and I want some warm tone blushes (there are WAY too many pink blushes in my life right now), um, and I want some Stella by Stella McCartney (this list could get really long if I let it so I'll stop there).  I recently swapped a Benefit Bad Gal Lash I had lying around for a "Pretty Sexy" MAC lippy and hubby is taking two other mascaras and a toner sample to the PO tomorrow to swap for a MAC blush and NARS lippy.  I LOVE this idea...love, love, love it.  My only word of warning is this: PLEASE be careful of germs and clean anything you swap like it is covered in AIDS.  Just assume it is.  And don't swap for used mascaras/other things that hold onto germs/things you can't clean...that's disgusting and not worth getting pregnant and dying over (Mean Girls anyone? no?  ok). 

You can also find message boards here where you can post questions and find answers to any beauty/health/fitness question you could possibly dream of.  I like just scrolling through these.  I always get great ideas, have a few giggles, and marvel at what other people actual use their brains for.  

Makeup Alley does have an app but it only has the consumer reviews on it.  I'm pretty apathetic about it honestly.  I guess if I was shopping and an emergency came up where I had to compare products this might be helpful, but I wish the app had all of the great features that the website does.  The app gets pretty crappy reviews and I'm sure it's because it doesn't sport all of the fancy features of the website.  

So come join me on Makeup Alley, I'm "efjones".  I have a few reviews on there and my swap list and wish list.  But guess what I still don't have...INSTAGRAM PICTURES!!

A Story of Three Foundations

Good evening everybody!  At the moment I have three foundations on my face.  Yes, three foundations on my face, at once.  I recently decided to find a foundation that covers my face like no foundation has covered any ones face before.  Then I got lazy so now I am wearing three, one on each cheek and one on my forehead, to see which one I like best.  Um, I may or may not (may) have already bought two of them so it's more of a "who do I like better" contest at this point.  

On the left cheek:  Smashbox Studio Skin 15 Hour Wear Hydrating Foundation.  This was my first choice and the first lucky lady to be slathered all over 1/3 of my face.  I have used Studio Skin on hundreds of clients who wanted medium/full coverage and I have loved it.  On me, it was slightly less perfect than I wanted...but just slightly.  1.1, the lightest color was great on my white-as-a-sheet-of-paper skin and I love the texture, it feels the creamiest and the lightest of the three...but the coverage, while good, is still not as hard core as I am looking for.  I want to have to peel this foundation off with a putty knife.

On the right cheek: Stila Stay All Day Foundation.  Now we're talkin'.  This foundation looks scary, it dispenses with a spatula (I kid you not) and looks SO thick but you don't need very much to go a LONG way.  BONUS...there is a coordinating concealer hiding in the cap of this little gem.  It also comes with a tiny, weird foundation brush that I anticipate never using.  I will through it in my freelance kit immediately, for emergencies.  When I first put this on, it looked so similar to the Smashbox, but then I put a bit more on and let them both set...get to know my skin a little bit.  While the Smashbox seemed to sheer out a tad, the Stila covered like a champ, without looking cakey.  Word of warning...this sucker dries FAST!  In-store, I used my fingers to blend on one cheek and it was drying before I could un-streakify it.  We got the problem solved by touching up and working in smaller areas but holy moley, work quick kids.  After getting a few opinions about which cheek looked better, since I can't make up my mind, I decided to go with the Stila and am excited to welcome it into my home and my makeup family.

On the forehead: Revlon Colorstay (I had an unopened bottle in my kit).  Once home from the store I realized I didn't have any foundation on my forehead and I wanted to slather on some Colorstay anyway so, well, I did.  It feels similar to the Stila, heavier, but has a dewier finish, which I don't seek out.  I definitely wouldn't say it has a true dewy finish, just not as matte as the Stila.  (I am doing a weird side-by-side, this would never happen in the real world, comparison here)  After a couple hours of wear, the feel of the Revlon is lighter than the Stila, but nothing I would base a purchasing decision on.  Coverage is still nice on both. 

The Fab Take:  Going in to this experiment, I knew I was dealing with some industry heavy hitters so none of them would be awful.  Definitely true.  If you want a true full coverage liquid, I recommend trying either the Revlon Colorstay or the Stila Stay All Day, whichever fits your budget.  Don't forget about the concealer that comes with the Stila!  Smashbox Studio Skin is a beautiful foundation, but I would not put it in the full-coverage foundation category, definitely medium-full...whatever floats your boat.