Thursday, December 18, 2014

#Instagram Beauty Look | Neutral Tones


Here is a great neutral look that I love wearing as my go-to everyday makeup. The colours are soft, the skin is glowing while the lips and eyes are balanced without being too overpowering.



PRODUCTS USED:

Eyes
BH Cosmetics 28 Neutral Palette
Giorgio Armani Eyes To Kill Mascara & Maestro Eyeliner
MAC Eye Pencil in Smoulder

Brows
Giorgio Armani Eye & Brow Maestro in Wedgewood

Face
Giorgio Armani Fluid Sheer #10
Luminous Silk Foundation #7
#400 Bronzer
#509 Blush

Lips
Giorgio Armani Rouge D'Armani #500
MAC Cosmetics Spice Liner



The list above does include many products but you can always start with one new product or technique and try to incorporate it to your own makeup looks. Either elevate the eyes or try a new lipstick, the options are endless! Hopefully you will find something new and discover what works for you!




Beauty Look | #FOTD/#MOTD Mac Heroine Lips!

This look was so fun because it featured MAC's Heroine Lipstick which I am obsessed with. I wanted to balance the lips with a look that wasn't too strong for the eyes, since the lip colour was the key feature!



PRODUCTS USED:

Eyes
Laura Mercier Caviar Sticks
BH Cosmetics 28 Neutral Palette
Vasanti Cosmetics Cleopatra Liquid Liner
Giorgio Armani Eyes to Kill Mascara
MAC Cosmetics Eye Pencil in Smoulder

Brows
Giorgio Armani Eye & Brow Maestro in Wedgewood
YSL Touch Eclat #3 for Precision Highlighting

Face
Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk Foundation #7
MAC Cosmetics Blush in Dainty
Giorgio Armani Bronzer #400

Lips
MAC Cosmetics Heroine Lipstick
Giorgio Armani Rouge D'Armani Sheers Lipstick


The vibrant lip is what makes this look. You can go smokey, edgy or soft whenever you have a bold lip. The rules to any look is that you must be confident! This Lipstick is a gorgeous shade that would look amazing on all skin tones!





Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Product Love | Laura Mercier Mini Caviar Stick Eye Colour Collection



As a beauty junkie, I feel it is important for me to share when I am in love with a product. Because I will share my thoughts from two perspectives, as a beauty lover and as a Makeup Artist. For me, the product needs to WOW me and also be good quality. I recently picked up these goodies and I have no regrets, because they have successfully done both! The Laura Mercier Mini Caviar sticks are like...Hoh my gawd! 




These little gems are perfect! This collection offers you gorgeous balance of colours which are perfect for everyday and for the holidays!  If you want a quick, effortless and long wearing smokey eye or any eye shadow look, you can easily achieve it! 

I love that you can literally scribble these on with no effort and can use your fingers to smudge out to achieve the perfect look.  Meaning: You can do the 1 minute smokey eye! If you want to, you can layer eye shadow on top but I find you can totally wear these alone.


  • Rosegold: Soft Pink Gold Tone. Reflective Sheen.
  • Amethyst: Pinky Brown Tone. Soft Sheen.
  • Moonlight: Silvery Brown Tone. Reflective Sheen.
  • Copper: True Vivid Copper. Reflective Sheen.
  • Khaki: Dark Deep Green Brown. Semi Matte.
  • Cocoa: Dark Chocolate Brown. Semi Matte.

Check back on the blog soon because I will be posting looks using these babies! Be sure to check out the Laura Mercier counter at Holt Renfrew Sherway Gardens. The lovely Paige and Courtney will be happy to show you the regular shades of the Caviar Sticks and what's new for the holidays!




Review | Maybelline Master Kajal



I love eyeliner and when I came across the ad for this Eyeliner by Maybelline I had to check it out. The Maybelline Master Kajal is pretty amazing! I loved the shape and love that I don't have to sharpen this pencil. The unique shape allows for precision eye lining whether it be for the waterline or upper/lower lashline.





















Pros:

  • Easy to Use.
  • Multiple ways to line eyes (Waterline, Under lash line or on the Top Lash line).
  • Shape allows for easy application inside the waterline. 
  • You can tightline by closing your eyes during the application.
  • Smokey and Smudgy effects can be achieved.
  • Never need to sharpen it!
Con:

  • Would love if it were waterproof, but it's not bad for long wear, with minor transfer.
  • Will not give you a sharp liner look. (Which is ok!)

Tip:
  • Use the pencil on an angle to keep shape and for even easier application.
  • Black shade is called Onyx Rush



Overall I am impressed with this product. It has worked very well for me as well as on my makeup clients. Worth the buy and I will be checking out the other colours that they offer too!





Monday, October 27, 2014

Product Love | Lip Goodies from MAC Cosmetics :)



You never forget your first love! The same is true for makeup junkies and their first experience with makeup. My makeup shopping started from regular visits to Shoppers Drug Mart where I would get the beauty basics but eventually I grew to discover MAC cosmetics. 

As a Makeup Artist, I have discovered a variety of beauty brands whether it be through the industry, colleagues, clients or from my own experience. Therefore my makeup kit will always have a mixture of products that I have grown to love. MAC has been a line that I have loved for their amazing lipsticks! From vibrant shades, unique collections and the multitude of finishes, every girl has at least 1 MAC lipstick in her beauty bag! Today I would like to share my NEW Lip goodies from MAC Cosmetics!



I went to Square One Shopping Centre on Thanksgiving Monday and I stopped by the Bay and took a quick peek at the MAC counter. I am totally a kid in the candy store when I shop for makeup. I ended up picking three goodies from MAC. (Trust me when I tell you that was a difficult task to reduce it to three!).
  • Fast Play Lipstick
  • Heroine Lipstick
  • Spice Lip Pencil





MAC Heroine I am obsessed with, it is such a beautiful vibrant matte purple-plum shade! MAC Fast Play is a gorgeous neutral brown lipstick and looks great with MAC Spice Liner.  This liner is great with nudes as well. All three are perfect for the season, whether you want to go super bold or muted brown. Check them out the next time you are at a MAC counter!




Sunday, September 21, 2014

Lifestyle | Vacation vs. STAYcation... Pros & Cons

There are many of us that count the days, the hours and the final minutes before a vacation. It's the same feeling we had as kids on the last day of school, knowing the end of structure, deadlines and being indoors is over and freedom is a second away!

Recently people have opted to take Vacation time and use that time to stay home and not actually leave to go anywhere! Fondly, a new term was invented to refer to this time off. It is known as a STAYcation!

Vacations away were popular and still are of course. There are many of those who love to plan, budget and swear that leaving to go away is the best thing. However, there are the other group of people who favour relaxing at home and having that time off locally is enough to recharge and relax.

Now I have done both, and to be completely honest, I love both! However here are the comparisons in my mind, the good and the bad for doing either.



Vacation Benefits:
  • Exotic Destination
  • Better weather options (if you go to a hot destination during Winter Months)
  • Variety of AMAZING Food Options
  • Numerous amenities (Room Service, Spa Service etc.)
  • Entertainment Options (Casinos, Bars and Clubs)
  • Couples only options as well as Family Friendly
  • Relaxation options are endless and you go home with an amazing tan!

Vacation Downside:
  • Depending on the travel rating, the destination may not be what you expected or read about.
  • Tropical destination also carry the risk of tropical storms
  • Food Options can be dismal or not exciting
  • Too many amenities to enjoy (Think Vegas! A good and a bad)
  • If the hotel has a down season, the entertainment options can be limited or closed
  • If you are looking for relaxation and end up in younger demographic resort or vice versa
  • With a beautiful Tan also comes the risk of an awful one! (Think "Glasses" Tan)

I have been blessed to have gone on a variety of vacations and I have enjoyed my time and my destinations accordingly! What I dread the most is the time when you board your plane and head back to your normal routine, it's such a downer! Especially when you get off that plane and the Toronto Weather welcomes you back with a cold weather slap, which is always refreshing (NOT!).



STAYcation Benefits:
  • You can pretty much do whatever you want
  • There is not cost, so you save money
  • No worries about packing or waiting in lines for your plane
  • You can do a variety of things, catch up on good TV or nothing at all
  • If you are a home project lover, you can finally get those things checked off your list

STAYcation Downside:
  • Sometimes the things you want to do you opt not to because you become too relaxed
  • If you are a social butterfly, you can end up spending money but not as much as a vacay
  • Weather can also be a factor. The one week you pick can either be cold or blah
  • Being home might force you to do those tasks which end up tiring you out
  • You may end up watching too much TV or overkill on Reality TV (which can be a good thing too)!

The good thing after a staycation is that it forces you to be creative and see your own city as a playground. Also, each day moves slowly because there is no time limit on what you have to do. So your days seem to last longer which makes your vacation seem longer.

Whatever you decide, time off is time off, and be sure to un-plug, disconnect and enjoy whichever option you pick! I think it`s good to alternate time off between Vacation and Staycation options. So my next vacation will be a trip away, we shall see!






Sunday, September 14, 2014

Beauty Look | #FOTD/#MOTD Smouldering Purple!




Purple is one of my favourite colours to wear. It looks great on all skin tones and works beautifully for brown eyes! I put together a purple smokey eye look using the Giorgio Armani Quad #12. A mini palette of sorts that still allows you to create a beautiful makeup look.

Check out the pics and details below:



EYES
Primer: Giorgio Armani Fluid Sheer #10
Lower Lash line/Waterline: MAC Smoulder Eye Pencil/Mixed with Dark Purple Shade from Quad
Lids: Lilac Shade
Transition: Earthy Brown Shade
Crease: Dark Purple
Brow Bone: Lightest Shade
Mascara: Giorgio Armani Eyes To Kill Mascara
Liquid Liner: Vasanti Cosmetics Liquid Liner Cleopatra
Accent Colour: Applied on the middle of the lids - Lightest Shade from Quad
Foiled Purple: Giorgio Armani Eyes to Kill (Fall Collection 2013) Scarab Violetta #33





FACE
Foundation: Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk #7
Mixed with: Giorgio Armani Fluid Sheer #10
Cheeks: Giorgio Armani Blush #506 + Bronzer #100

LIPS
Beautique Liner in Soft Brown
MAC Lipstick in Angel
MAC Lipglass in Perky

BROWS
Giorgio Armani Eye & Brow Maestro in #02
Giorgio Armani Brow Pencil in #02
YSL Touch Eclat to Define Browns underneath and on top



The reason I use Fluid Sheer as a base for my shadow is it makes for a great primer. Fluid Sheer is a liquid based highlighting product that can is used for, of course, highlighting, but it works beautifully as an Eye shadow primer. The "sticky" texture allows the powder shadow to adhere which results in a longer wear as well as NO creasing! I have worn this look for 12 hours now and it has NOT creased!

I also like to mix Fluid Sheer with my foundation for a glowing finish to the skin!

Such a beautiful look to do for a night out, a reception look paired with a darker lip or Date/Girls Night! Try it out and feel free to comment, share or post your version of this look!





Friday, September 12, 2014

Lifestyle | My 30 Day Detox from Celebrity Gossip

OK, I have finally decided to fess up and admit that I am a gossip lover! 

From seeking, reading, twittering, facebooking to instagramming, I am a little obsessed with Celebrity gossip. The thing is, as much as I LOVE it, I also hate Celebrity Gossip, like I mean, I detest it. I cringe to myself when I speak to a group of friends or colleagues and our normal conversations somehow become about the infamous, pseudo or wannabe celebrities! What starts out as a seemingly normal conversation has now turned into a conversation about people we will never meet in our lifetime, yet we all participate in dissecting, analyzing, gossiping and of course judging...therefore I cringe. 

However, when I get home, my night time ritual of web surfing allows my hate to fade. My once strong opinions about them, such as what they should be doing or not doing alters because now I seek their lives in photos, which I do INTENTIONALLY every night! I am like a fiend, I must have my fix! I feed this need to be a voyeur then have the strong need to expunge whatever I have seen. A true love hate relationship but I can honestly make the statement that I truly am a celebrity gossip addict.

Like with any bad habit that you find yourself participating in, you must do a number of things to modify or correct the behaviour. My steps of how I tackled this problem are listed below:

1. Admit there is a problem
2. Deter or delete any triggers of celebrity gossip
3. Replace the bad habits with good habits
4. Do it for 30 days to ensure success.

So, I took the time to tell a few people that I am not going to watch Celebrity Gossip or seek out their photos for the next 30 days! The common responses were:

“Are you serious? There is no way?”
“Well what will we talk about then?”
“Do you really think you can do that for 30 days?”
Or my personal favourite:
“How about I tell you about celebrity news and that way it’s not you seeking it, but me telling you?”

Clearly I had a lot of support (NOT!) Lol! After admitting my plan, I deleted a few celebrities off my Instagram and then cleared my web history and deleted the celebrity sites from my bookmarks. I thought, OK, I can do this. In order for me to survive, I had to purge on all the gossip I could get my hands on. Once I did, I felt confident in my plan!

Now, for all the extra time that was spent on gossip reading, I opted to Learn. So instead of going to my go-to celeb sites, I opted to go to regular vanilla flavoured News sites. I started spending more time focusing on me and my goals. I picked up some good books, corresponded with family, spent time with loved ones and cooked a new meal that I got off the net. At work, the conversations I had were more fulfilling and not so superficial. It was nice that I can hear about someone’s day versus what celebrity x wore and debating the merits of his or her body parts. #Truth #RealTalk. The month allowed me to make connections that mattered not empty ones.

I am glad I chose 30 days for this detox. There were many arguments on the merits of changing bad habits within a certain number of days. Some argued 21 whereas I read even 28 - 30 days can help. I chose to detox for 30 days since I wanted it to be a full month with 1 day of Celebrity Gossip overload, which I did indeed!

Once the 30 days were up, I have to be honest, I felt smarter, well-rounded as an individual and felt clear headed. After the detox, I occasionally go on the gossip sites and pick out a few articles to read. The time spent has been cut down tremendously. I realized I was more attracted to Entertainment News versus the hear-say gossip that I used to prefer reading about.

The detox worked for me! Go ahead and try your own 30 day detox and see how it can work for you!




Thursday, September 11, 2014

Beauty Look | #FOTD/#MOTD - Green Eye Makeup with Pink Lips :)



Green shadow looks are making it everywhere on the #NYFW (New York Fashion Week) runways. I wanted to try out this fun shade by using products I already had on hand. You can always buy new makeup for new trends but if you are a bonafide makeup junkie (aka Makeup addict) like me, than you will always have the products that you need in your makeup bag or drawer :)

This is a perfect FALL makeup look. Here is my look de-constructed below:



EYES
Primer: Giorgio Armani Fluid Sheer #10
Lower Lash line/Waterline: Annabelle Black & Blue Eye Pencil
Base: Vasanti Kajal Extreme Eye Pencil in Black on 2/3 of the Eye and Crease
Transition: Giorgio Armani Bronzer #400 into the crease
Lids: Giorgio Armani Eyes To Kill (Fall Collection 2013) #32 Gold Hercule (Mixed with Fluid Sheer #10)
Crease: Coastal Scents Ultra Shimmer 88 Palette  - Rich Emerald
Mascara: Giorgio Armani Eyes to Kill Mascara

BROWS
Giorgio Armani Eye & Brow Maestro in #02
Giorgio Armani Brow Pencil in #03
YSL Touche Eclat to Highlight Underneath and on top

FACE
Foundation: Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk Liquid Foundation #7
Highlight: Giorgio Armani Fluid Sheer #10
Cheeks: Giorgio Armani Bronzer #400

LIPS
Beautique Liner in Wine
Giorgio Armani Rouge D'Armani Sheers Lipstick (Summer 2014 Collection) #603 Plum





I love this look and will be wearing it a lot for the Fall months! Try this look out and share your comments below! If you wanted to neutralize this look, use a brown shade for the crease to blend. :)





Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Product Love | Giorgio Armani Faves & Coming Soon!

 

Let's be real, anyone who receives a goodie bag, a gift or swag, can't help themselves but to feel excited! That's how I felt when I received my goodies from Giorgio Armani. I got a mix of current and yet to be launched goodies which I am going to share below!


SUN FABRIC SHEER BRONZERS



Giorgio Armani launched a collection of NEW bronzers for the Summer called Sun Fabrics. My two favourites from this collection were Shade #100 and #400. Shade #100 is a a gorgeous, smooth caramel brown that diffuses beautifully on the skin. A great all over bronzer to set foundation or for a soft contour in the hollows of the Cheek and the perimeter of the face. Travel friendly with the inclusion of a brush!



Shade #400 is a bit warmer and adds more depth to the face. I like to use this one as my "touch-up" bronzer to re-emphasize the cheek bones, works great alone or paired with blush. This also makes a great transition colour for eye shadows whether you are doing a smokey or a neutral eye.

EYES TO KILL MASCARA



This is a gorgeous Mascara, creates full, long, thick and dramatic lashes. The formula is amazing to work with and you can continuously work the product through your lashes till you achieve the desired look! The whole collection of Mascaras are amazing, but this one is my current favourite!


CHEEK FABRIC SHEER BLUSH


I absolutely adore this blush! Shade #506 looks great on EVERY skin tone. The blush is a warm rosy pink which is super flattering. Offers great pigment and blend-ability which diffuses onto the cheeks perfectly!


ROUGE ECSTASY LIPSTICK



This is such a gorgeous pink shade called Peony, a warm pink shade that works well from Summer into Fall. Rouge Ecstasy lipsticks are amazing because they have Vitamin E and Shea Butter which helps to protect the lips with each use. Highly pigmented colour with an amazing hydrating feel!


COMING SOON! | ROUGE ECSTASY SPICE & EYE & BROW MAESTRO



There are three new shades coming in for the already existing Rouge Ecstasy collection. Three new Red Inspired shades. Let me introduce you to Rouge Ecstasy Spice a gorgeous warm Red! I will be doing a look based on this shade soon so you can see how it looks on!



I am so excited for the launch of this product! This is Eye & Brow Maestro #02 and looks amazing with my skin tone and hair colour! It is a versatile Brow product that offers the following uses:
  • 9 Gorgeous shades
  • Easily applies and sets for 20 hour wear
  • Does not fade
  • Natural looking colour
  • Allows for precision definition or natural looking brows
  • Great as an eyeliner
  • Works amazing as an Eye shadow base



Check out the above products as they work well into Fall and are perfect additions to add to your makeup bag or kit! Stay tuned for Makeup Looks on the blog showcasing these products!




Monday, September 8, 2014

Beauty Look | EOTD: Neutral Winged Liner


















This look is very fun to create. I normally wear a thinner liner and I do a kitten liner which is a smaller and softer version of the full Winged Liner.  For this look, I wanted to showcase how easy it is to take a neutral eye makeup look and amp it up with the liner.

Check out the look details below:



Products Used:

  • Eye shadows | Urban Decay Naked Palette 
  • Lid: Sin w/Virgin on top
  • Crease: Buck Mixed with Smog
  • Inner Corner: Sin
  • Corner/Outer Crease: Creep mixed with Gunmetal
  • Brow Bone: Virgin
  • Waterline/Lower Lashline: MAC Smoulder Black Eye Pencil
  • Lashline: Gunmetal and Creep
  • Liner: Vasanti Cleopatra Liquid Liner
  • Mascara: Giorgio Armani Eyes To Kill Mascara

Next time you have a soft or neutral looking eye makeup, try making your Liquid Liner the focus and it will make your eyes pop!