Saturday, January 29, 2011

Free full size Bare Escentuals foundation and brush with any Sephora purchase....worth $44!!!

I just got a promo code in my inbox for a FREE FULL SIZE BARE ESCENTUALS FOUNDATION AND BRUSH...ladies this is a great deal and no they are not paying me to write this :) It's awesome that it's with any purchase so you could buy something for $5 and still get the foundation which was the selling point for me, I don't feel like a free gift with a $50 purchase is that great of a deal. The promo code for this deal is BELOVED which you can enter at the checkout. The only negative is that you can only use one promo code so there is no free shipping unless you spend over $50. However if you do spend that much it's an even better deal especially if you were going to buy the items eventually anyway. I ordered a new Urban Decay palette I am excited about, I am a superfan of all their products and this palette was on sale for a great price. I have only tried on Bare Escentuals in stores so I'm curious to see if it holds up to my foundation needs. I will review both products for you guys asap!

xoxo
makeup mistress

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

how to shape your eyebrows so you look fabulous

Hello everyone! One of the other lovely traits I inherted from my Mexican side of the family besides my glorious muffin top (who is named Antonio and is pleased to meet you) is my crazy eyebrows. I could rival Frida Kahlo in a unibrow throwdown if I let mine get overgrown enough. Ever since I was about 13 or so they became the bane of my existence and I have done everything short of taking a weed whacker to them to get them in line, although don't think I didn't seriously consider it. So after many years of learning by trial and (lots of) error, this is my method of eyebrow grooming I threw together from personal experience and what I learned in school. I know that my way is not the only way and a lot of it comes down to personal preference but these tips are what have worked best for me in the past. Hopefully it's helpful!






If you have particularly sensitive skin or  don't like tweezing because it hurts you can use baby teething gel on your eyebrows before hand to numb them.

The only tools you need are a pair of tweezers/wax strips and a makeup brush or pen. To determine where they should begin, arch, and end, you hold the brush up to your face as a guideline and follow the lines.

The purple line is where you would hold the brush up to your face to see where your eyebrows should begin. You can either mark it with eyeliner or just eyeball it after you take away the pencil. If your eyebrows naturally extend beyond this line, you can pluck or wax those hairs away, but be careful to leave the top edge still slightly rounded as in the photo so it doesn't look unnatural.

The blue line is where you hold the brush to see where the arch should be placed. It does take some practice to shape them naturally especially if you have a lot of stray hairs/thick eyebrows like I do. Eyebrow stencils can be helpful for this so you can follow the shape as a guideline and just adjust the arch to where it needs to be, or you can have them professionally waxed/threaded to shape them and then keep up on the maintenance yourself.

The green line is where they should taper off. If your eyebrows extend past it you can pluck them but again be careful to leave a natural shape at the ends so it doesn't look like you went to town with the tweezers which I have done on accident before several times, whoopsie doodle.

Thickness is a personal choice so there's really no right or wrong answer. Mine are naturally really thick so I thin them out quite a bit but I think I'm in the minority for too thick eyebrows. I get mine professionally threaded because it's way too big of a task for me to try to get rid of my unibrow and crazy hairs above and below my eyebrow all on my own, the amount of eyebrows I have is just ridiculous! But they do grow fast despite me getting them done so in between threading I either pluck them or use at home wax strips which you can cut into very small strips and just grab a whole line of hair which I find better than tweezing since I am impatient, then I usually go back in at the end and get the strays with tweezers.

My favorite wax strips are the Sally Hansen face wax strips and the Veet wax strips. I tried the Sally beauty supply brand and I didn't really like it and it only came with about half the strips that the other two did for almost the same price, not cool. So that's it for my eyebrow tutorial I hope you guys found it helpful! I can make a video showing how to fill in your eyebrows if anyone would like to see that also, just let me know!

Thanks for reading guys, I will be doing some giveaways in the next week or two so stay tuned. Also I will be giving my 100th follower a little something too so be sure to follow me so you don't miss it! Talk to you guys soon :)

xoxo
makeup mistress

Monday, January 17, 2011

MAC Studio Fix Review

Oh MAC Studio Fix, where have you been all my life?! If I had discovered this sooner it would have saved me from countless hours of spilling liquid foundation everywhere and caking on several products to achieve the amount of coverage I wanted; this product has totally saved me.

It is marketed by MAC as a "powder foundation" - meaning it gives the same coverage as a liquid in a powder form. This is a perfect item for someone who likes the look of liquid foundation but doesn't want to deal with the mess it can create. It also rocks because you can adjust the amount of coverage you get from the product by applying it with different brushes or using it wet. The packaging is fabulous because it includes a separate compartment to store your sponge. (Never store your sponges on top of the powder in a compact because it transfers the oils from your skin to the makeup and it doesn't work as well, there's a little pro tip for you girls!) I was able to wash the sponge it came with to keep re-using it so I didn't have to keep buying a new one, another awesome feature of this product.

So, how exactly do you apply this sucker to get the maximum benefits? I have had a lot of women say it's kind of daunting since they are only familiar with liquid foundations, so I will hold your hand and we will get through this together! 

First you have to determine what kind of coverage you want: regular, medium, or heavy. For regular coverage all you have to do is use the included sponge to apply it or use a fluffy powder/blush brush. For medium coverage use a foundation brush, and for the heaviest amount you can wet the foundation brush and then dip it into the product and apply it the way you would with liquid foundation. (The color often ends up darker after you wet it, so take the into consideration when choosing which shade you are buying.)

Now that you have gotten beautified, you're going to throw your Studio Fix in your bag, put on your sassiest outfit and walk out the door, right? Wrong! Studio Fix is a foundation so you don't want to use it throughout the day to touch up your face as it will become more and more caked on. The best thing to do is to carry a regular powder or oil blotting powder with you and use that for touch ups. It will go over the Studio Fix beautifully and no one will ever know the difference. Also, Studio Fix tends to oxidize throughout the day and get darker as it mixes with the oils in your skin so when you are choosing a shade at the store you might want to consider going one or two shades lighter than normal.

Ok ladies I have to go rinse out this hair dye I've had in my hair for entirely too long...but you should all stay on top of my posts because I will be doing a giveway very soon...yes that means FREE MAKEUP! I'll keep you guys posted on all the details.

xoxo
makeup mistress

Thursday, January 13, 2011

First post and false eyelash tutorial!

Hello everyone! Welcome to my blog about all things beauty related and the occasional cupcake photo :) I have been wanting to start a blog for a very long time and finally told myself it was now or never so here it is. I am a tattooed, cupcake eating, pole dancing makeup artist and I started this blog to share my beauty knowledge with all you lovely readers. I hope everyone finds the reviews and tutorials I post here helpful and I am always open for suggestions on tutorials, makeup questions, or anything else you want to throw at me. I'm gonna keep this entry short and sweet but I did want to kick off my blog with a tutorial, I had a lot of requests for a false eyelash application video so here it is! I used strip and individual to show the difference between the two, I used cheap ones from the drugstore so you definitely don't need to break the bank to look fabulous. I hope you guys like it!


I've been trying to embed the video so everyone can just watch it here but it the code youtube is giving me won't work so I'll just have to post the link here until I can figure out what's going on...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIhS9LceghY


xoxo
makeup mistress