A Purple and Red Eye-popping FOTD (for glasses-wearers)

One of my favourite eye make-up looks is to wear one (at least) shade on my eyelid and another along my lower lashline. Here's a version I've worn a few times to work lately. 

I've been wearing glasses to work since last year, and it's still unsettling for me. I still don't recognize myself and I still struggle to come up with eye makeup looks. My eyesight is poor meaning my glasses are a strong prescription so my eyes look smaller when I'm wearing them, and because I can't see well without them, putting eye makeup on can be difficult. Liquid/gel eyeliner, for example, is impossible to do properly on my left eye when I'm not wearing my contact lenses. I try to find looks that are simple, flattering and help make my eyes stand out behind my glasses.

Anyway, enough complaining and more about the point of this post. This is a colourful but wearable, simple look that make my eyes pop from behind glasses or not.

Here are some close-ups of my eyes.

The products I used for my base are Make Up For Ever HD Foundation in N115 all over my face, with MAC Pro Longwear Concealer in NW20 under my eyes as well as on any areas that needed more coverage. I set it all with a combination of Ben Nye Neutral Set and Pari Mineral Glow. My eyes are primed with Art Deco Eyeshadow Base. Even though this stuff does not work on me, I keep trying just in case it might someday because I hate wasting product. I do find that it does allow whatever eyeshadow you apply on top of it be true, in that it gives it a base to adhere to and in doing so, it's exactly the colour it is in the container. What it fails at is keeping it from creasing. In the photo two above, you can see some fading in my eyeshadow crease. I applied (the amazing) Anastasia Dipbrow in Auburn through my brows to fill them in, give them shape, and to alter the colour to match my hair colour better. 

On my eyes I applied MAC's Heritage Rouge (dirty brown plum) pigment to my eyelids, starting in the inner corner, working across the lid and up into my crease blending it out towards my browbone. I also carried it out into a winged shape on the outside of my eyes.

I kept applying it until I got the effect I wanted. Along my lower lashline, I smudged L'Oreal Paris Infallible in Purple Obsession. The more I blended, the less purple it looked, so I kept adding and blending until I got both a soft, smudged effect and the colour I wanted. 

For some more definition along my lashline, I smudged MAC's Embark eyeshadow, a warm matte reddish-brown colour that adds a touch of definition but doesn't compete with either the Heritage Rouge or the Purple Obsession.

I curled my lashes and applied lots of Givenchy Noir Couture Volume Mascara in Black Taffeta.

On my cheeks I applied a combination of MAC's Stunner and Warmth of Coral blushes to give my skin some colour and to keep it soft so it didn't compete with my eyes.

And for a final touch, I dusted my skin all over with Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder in Diffused Light, which gives the skin a light glow, and blurs imperfections. 

On my lips, I'm wearing just a sheer lip balm. It's not that I wouldn't and don't wear a lip colour with this look, though I do (usually a MLBB shade). My lips have been chapped and dry lately and lip balm is about the only thing I can wear on them. 

And there you have it - my colourful, my-eyes-are-still-here-behind-these-glasses, fun and simple.

- C.

Strong Eye Strong Lip FOTD

Typically when doing a makeup look, one feature is played up more than the others. Usually you will play up the eyes OR the lips, keeping the other subtle. Think about a smoky eye look. Usually the lips and cheeks are played down to allow the smoky eye pop. 

http://beautysquared.blogspot.ca/2014/01/navy-smoke-eotd-with-copper-and-rose.html

Same with wearing a bold lip colour, usually the eyes and cheeks are the supporting actors. 

The 1980s were known for excess, and makeup looks were bright, colourful and strong. Wearing a strong eye and strong lip look today can look dated, but you can pull it off if you want to. It just takes some care and attention to make sure that your look is balanced, not competing with itself.

In these photos, I'm wearing very simple makeup, playing up both my eyes and my lips with strong effects. It's a bit goth, but the raspberry sheen of my lip colour help to soften it, and I made sure to keep my eyeliner as crisp and tight to my lashes as possible. 

I am wearing my usual base - concealer and buffed into the areas of my face that need it. A bit of contouring along my jaw and under my cheekbone, groomed brows, and a touch of blush. For my eyes I used a black eye pencil and tightlined my eyes, starting from the inner corner (pulling it down to a tiny point). I smudged it along my top and bottom lashlines with a tiny brush. I wanted to keep it as tight as possible to my lashes. I used a clean brush to clean up any areas where it got too heavy or too thick. I curled my lashes and applied lots of mascara. 

For my lips, I applied MAC Red Dwarf (raspberry) and then dabbed some OCC Tarred Lip Balm on top to darken it. 

That's it! I think that keeping it so simple, it looks softer, undone. The focus is shared between my eyes and lips but it doesn't look heavy, or dated. 

For a softer look, use a brown eyeliner pencil, and a lighter lip colour. 

C.

Introducing Saint Cosmetics: FOTD, swatches, review and photos

Beauty Squared was invited to the launch of a brand new Canadian makeup line recently. Saint Cosmetics is a luxurious, all natural makeup line made in Ontario. That's right, all natural and glamourous and sophisticated, not bohemian or crunchy-granola. No offense to those cosmetic lines or anyone who likes them, but it's just not my style. I like sleek packaging and brands that are fun, edgy, sophisticated and exciting. Why can't a line that uses natural ingredients be those things? It's like my argument for frozen yogurt - it's healthier than ice cream, but why are so many fruit-flavoured? What's wrong with chocolate frozen yogurt and butterscotch frozen yogurt? You can be consider your health and be a little indulgent at the same time, y'know? 

Now I want frozen yogurt. 

OK, back to Saint Cosmetics. From their website:

Our entire range of products is free from dyes, artificial perfumes, and harsh chemicals, leaving you with natural healthy-looking skin. We have spent the last two years developing an antioxidant cosmetic line that produces high-impact results while using a blend of high quality natural and organic ingredients.

All of Saint Cosmetics products are created from naturally occurring and derived ingredients from nature, which are free from parabens, sulfates, silicone, PEGs, phthalate, SLS, mineral oil, triclosan, and petrolatum or anything with suspected potential human health risks. Our natural line of products is produced from the best natural component of plants that do not result in skin irritation unlike other chemical based cosmetics.

I admittedly don't know a great deal about natural cosmetics and what to look for and what to avoid. I'm also naturally skeptical so I'm curious to see what other people have to say about Saint Cosmetics. 

Anyway, here are some photos of the launch event, held at Andrew Richmond Designs in Toronto. It was a beautiful space, and the food and cocktails were delicious. 

The makeup station, where a makeup artist was doing touch-ups using the Saint Cosmetics products, and we could do some swatching!

There are 144 products in total, including a primer, foundations, concealers, powders, blushes, bronzers, lipsticks, lip glosses, lip pencils, eyeshadows, eye pencils, a liquid eyeliner, eye brow pencils, a mascara, brushes and a fragrance. A very complete line!

Here are swatches of (from top down) two lipsticks, including the boldest-looking shade (Eternally Yours, Fuchsia) and a lipgloss, as well as that small black line near my thumb, the liquid liner. 

Textures of the products I swatched were impressive (I also tried a lip pencil and eye pencil, concealer and foundation). I didn't swatch any of the blushes, eyeshadows or bronzers because there were no Q-tips provided to do so. 

Colour-wise, there are 41 shades of eyeshadow, which by appearance strike me as mostly easy-to-wear, subtle shades, the majority of the shades being browns in varying tones. 

There are 14 shades of foundation, 14 powders and 12 shades of concealers, with most shades falling in the mid-tone range. 

There are 18 shades of lipstick and 8 lip glosses, mainly in mid-tone shades.

Lip products and eyeshadows tend to be more trendy, of course, so these are areas where lines typically will add new shades per season. 

There are also 15 Saint Cosmetics brushes, all with names like Fury, Lust and Bliss. 

The product names are pretty playful, OTT, sexy and modern. Some of my favourites are: Dirty Lil Secrets, Kiss of Death, Juicy Peaches, Sinsational Silver, and Rock Off. 

Prices are as follows:

Lipsticks $18
Lip glosses $20
Lip pencils $18
Eyeshadows $19
Eyeliner pencil $18
Liquid eyeliner $15
Mascara $21
Eyebrow pencil $18
Liquid Foundation $35
Concealers $23
Primer $34
Powders $30
Bronzers $30
Blushes $25
Brushes $12-$43

Everyone who attended the launch got a smartphone stand (not pictured), a Saint Cosmetics t-shirt and a Saint Cosmetics makeup bag. Mine contained an eyeshadow, a lipstick and a lipgloss.

The Saint Cosmetics packaging is white, and sophisticated. The boxes the products come in have flame streaking across them. 

First up, let's take a look at the lip gloss. The shade I got is Sex Kitten, a medium rose shade with gold shimmer. ($20 for 6 g/0.21 oz)

Ingredients: organic castor oil, caprylic/capric triglyceride, heliantus annus (sunflower) seed oil (organic), copernica cefifera (carnauba) wax (organic), ricinus communis (castor seed oil), hydrogenated castor oil, cera alba, euphoria cerifera (candelilla) wax, butyrospermum parkii (shea butter), glycerl caprylate, olea europaea (olive fruit oil), hydrgenated olive oil, europaea (olive) oil unsaponifiables, vanillin, tocopherol, gamma decalactone, gamma octalactone, ethyl butyrate, helianthus annuus (sunflower) seed oil, rosmarinus officinalis (rosemary) leaf extract. 

* may contain (+/-) iron oxide, red 7 lake, red 27 lake, red 6 lake, blue 1 lake, yellow 5 lake, mica and titanium dioxide.

The lip gloss wands are rectangular and white with gold accents. One minor complaint is that you can't tell what the shade is because the packaging isn't translucent. If you had three or four of these, you'd have to rely on the name on the bottom or open each tube up to see the colour.

Sex Kitten is a soft rosy pink with a bit of gold shimmer. For me this is a MLBB (My Lips But Better) shade.

Swatched on NW15 skintone. 

Here's the lipstick, Paint the Town, a sister shade to Sex Kitten (midtone rose with slight shimmer). ($18 for 3.5 g/0.13 oz)

Ingredients: organic castor oil, caprylic/capric triglyceride, heliantus annus (sunflower) seed oil (organic), euphoria cerifera (candelilla) wax, copernica cefifera (carnauba) wax (organic), cera alba (organic), cetyl alcohol, ricinus communis (castor) seed oil, hydrogenated castor oil, olea europaea (olive fruit oil), hydrogenated olive oil, eurpaea (olive) oil unsaponifiables, vanillin, tocopherol, gamma decalactone, gamma octalactone, ethyl butyrate. *may contain (+/-) iron oxide CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499, red 7 lake CI 15850, red 27 lake CI 45410, red 6 lake CI 15850, blue 1 lake CI 42090, yellow 5 lake CI 19140, mica CI 77019 and titanium dioxide CI 77891.

The lipstick case is also rectangular and white with gold accents and the tube is smaller than a MAC lipstick, though you get slightly more product in a Saint lipstick. 

Swatched on NW15 skintone, next to Saint Cosmetics Sex Kitten Lip Gloss.

The eyeshadow I was given is Hell Have No Fury, which is black. Very, very black. ($18 for 3.5 g/0.13 oz)

Ingredients: talc, caprylic/capric triglyceride, octyldodecyl strearoyl stearate, silica, jojoba esters, glyceryl caprylate, helianthus annuus (sunflower) seed oil, rosmarinus officinalis (rosemary) leaf extract. *may contain iron oxides CI 77492, CI 77491, CI 77499, ultramarines CI 77007, mica CI 77019, titanium dioxide CI 77492, chromium oxide greens CI 772492. 

The eyeshadow packaging is square and white with gold accents.

When you flip open the lid, there is a mirror on the underside of it. I have to mention too, the case closes very satisfyingly. It slows as it connects and slips satisfyingly into place. I believe there's a magnet involved. 

Hell Have No Fury swatches on my finger very black. When I rubbed my finger across the back of my hand, it did not swatch as deeply. Using a brush, it applies somewhere between the two. 

Swatched on NW15 skintone.

The texture is soft and silky, without a lot of powder or fall-out. It's a matte shade, so it goes slightly sheer and dry, but it can be built up for more impact. 

Since these three products would work really well together in one look, I decided to wear them the next day to work. This is a subtle day look, perfect for work, both flattering and wearable. 

I used Hell Have No Fury along my upper lashline, and wore Paint the Town on my lips. (I applied Sex Kitten over it for a latter photo). 

I am also wearing Lorac Pro Palette shadows on my eyelid (Mauve), brow bone (Lt. Bronze) and lower lash line (Lt. Bronze). 

As you can see, Hell Have No Fury smudges easily and is a good, if slightly sheer, black. It wore pretty well all day, with minimal fading. 

On my lips is Sex Kitten. Sex Kitten goes on smoothly, and looks quite natural, both in colour and in texture. It's got slight shimmer to it. I found that it wore on my lips for about two hours before I needed to reapply, and it didn't feel dry on my lips. 

Here I am with the same look, just with Sex Kitten lip gloss applied on top of Paint the Town on my lips. 

Sex Kitten is slicker than Paint the Town, since it's a gloss and has more shine. It's very easy to wear, both in terms of the colour, and in texture. It's not sticky at all, which is comfortable to wear, but gives it a shorter wear-time. I'd say it stayed intact for an hour, and started fading after two. It's quite pigmented, so enough colour is left behind as it fades to make it easily worn during the day with minimal application. 

Saint Cosmetics is currently only available online at www.saintcosmetics.ca but stay tuned for announcements about increased availability in the future, I'm told. 

I'm excited to see if this all natural cosmetic line will take off. I was impressed with the products I've been able to try and would love to check out their primer, foundation, concealer, blushes and pencils. Hopefully they'll be available in stores where they can be swatched and applied.

C.