FOTD: How to wear a bold pink lip

Inspired by Lily Allen on the cover of Q Magazine's Artists of the Century (you can see the full cover here), where she's slouchily sitting in dark jeans, a black tank and black stiletto boots, hair in her eyes, poutily looking up at the camera with a fabulous fuchsia lip colour and little else on her face. This is one of my favourite looks so I wanted to show you how you can wear a bold pink lip.

It's such a simple, sophisticated, edgy, youthful look and stands outs amid all the smoky eyes and retro red or glossy lips. It's very pop, very new wave, very early 80s, very electric but the way it's being worn today, as on Lily, is very modern.

So here, are three ways you can wear a bold pink (or coral, or orange, or purple) lip. You want to keep the rest of your make-up simple, very simple. Base, a touch of very natural blush, clear, glowy skin and a very basic eye make-up such as the three below. The lipstick colour I'm wearing in all three looks is MAC's Girl About Town.

Soft and sparkly. I wore this look going to see The Big Pink at Lee's Palace.

For this soft and sparkly look I applied Gosh eyeshadow in 14 Grey Brown - a taupey-silver - quite heavily from my lashline up just past my crease. It's a sheer colour so even with a few layers it doesn't look like much, but that's what I wanted, just a hint of colour and lots of shimmer. I wanted to have a lash-heavy look so using an angle brush, I smudged JoeFresh Midnight eyeshadow - a dark, sparkly grey - along my upper lashes. I applied JoeFresh mascara in black, heavily, for a dramatic look. I then lined my lower lashes with Gosh Sparkling Pearl eye pencil - a soft yellow-gold - to emphasize my lower lashes and to make my eyes sparkle a little more. Blush is a tiny bit of Strada under my cheekbones and Benefit High Beam as a highlighter along my brown bone and the tops of my cheekbones.

14 Grey Brown

Sparking Pearl

High Beam

Liquid liner (a la Lily):

Here's a FOTD based on what I'm guessing Lily is wearing on the cover of Q Magazine. It's a very basic black slightly winged eyeliner and soft blush. I used MAC Paint Pot in Bare Study on my lids and then lined my lash line with MAC Blacktrack and an angle brush. Cheeks are a layering of JoeFresh Pink Rose cheektint and MAC powder blush in Fleur Power. Mascara is Bare Escentuals Buxom.

Bare Study

Blacktrack

Pink Rose

Fleur Power 

Silvery eye:

This silvery eye isn't so different from the Soft and Sparkly Eye above, it's simply a touch smokier and uses greys and silvers rather than soft beiges and vanilla colours. This look was more dramatic in person than it appears in the photos.

How I got this look was by softly lining my waterline with a black eye pencil and smudging it out into my lashline and slightly onto my eye lids, blending it out. I topped the smudged pencil line on my upper lid with MAC Smut and a tiny bit of MAC Carbon for more depth. I used BE Drama all over my lids to just above my crease and used JoeFresh Midnight on the outer half of my lids. I applied Benefit High Beam to my browbone and blended it down onto my cheekbones for highlight. Blush is minimal, a touch of whatever was still on my blush brush (likely MAC Strada and MAC Fleur Power). I applied multiple coats of BE Buxom Lash mascara on my top lashes and two coats on my lower lashes, as this is was a going-out look and combed through with a lash comb to get rid of clumps.

Drama

Midnight

Smut

 Carbon

*You could go heavier with the liner and the black around your eyes for a more dramatic look, particularly if you've got darker skin than I do. Try not to go overboard because this look can easily become "80s rocker" - unless of course, that's what you want!

C.

Lancome: O My Rose Pop 'n Petrol Eyeshadow and Le Kohl Glosses

Lancome's International Artistic Director for Makeup, Aaron De Mey delivers a very unorthodox spring collection entitled "O My Rose!".  I call this collection unorthodox because from the title, you would assume a palette of pinks, roses and mauves.  Instead, De Mey delivers warm, coppery neutrals and cool greens.

I'm reviewing the Pop 'n Petrol eye shadow palette and the Le Kohl Gloss pencils in BB Sand and Pop Petrol. All items are LE, swatched on NC 35-40 skin, natural light.

Left to right: Le Kohl Gloss in BB Sand and Pop Petrol, Pop 'n Petrol Palette.

Le Kohl Gloss ($31.50 CA)

BB Sand - a shimmery beige, with a gloss texture.

Pop Petrol - a stunning phtalo blue, well pigmented with a gloss texture.

General Comments

The Le Kohl Glosses are essentially an eye gloss in a stick.  The formula is very glossy, soft and smudgeable.  I was immediately attracted to Pop Petrol, as phtalo is my favourite shade of blue. I wanted to buy it immediately!  But I held off, mainly for the reason that eye gloss is notoriously difficult to wear because it never sets and will always crease and smudge.  Add in the price factor, and I'm just not sure it is worth spending $31.50 on something that you're going to wear very few times in very few situations.  You can get the same effect by layering a face gloss such as MAC's Clear Gloss ($22.00 CA) over a similar shade of eyeliner. You could also dupe BB Sand this way by layering gloss over a shade like MAC Shroom. These are very pretty products but unfortunately not very practical and quite expensive.

Pop 'n Petrol Palette ($55.00 CA/48.00 US)

Another item I wasn't sure if I wanted or not! This is a fairly unique quad that features a shimmery white, deep metallic teal, slightly greenish silver and a matte sage. The colours are on their own, very pretty - particularly the greenish silver, which (if memory serves me correctly) is a kin to the legendary Erika F shadow Lancome sells in Europe (comparison coming soon!). What stumped me though is the combination of the colours. I'm not an expert in colour theory, but I know enough to recognize that the warm brownish sage shade doesn't quite fit in with the otherwise cool tones. All that being said, I am going back to pick this one up and will definitely try to do a look using all four colours.

J

Cover Girl Smoky Shadow Blasts Looks and Review

I saw these in the drugstore and thought they looked interesting so I picked up two to bring home and try out. Drew Barrymore looked gorgeous in the imagery and I admit that she sucked me in. 

Drew wearing CoverGirl Smoky Shadow Blast in Silver Sky

The two shades I bought are Purple Plume and Silver Sky (pictured below).

The CoverGirl Smoky Shadow Blasts are double-ended cream shadow sticks designed to be used without brushes or applicators. The Step One end has a rounded tip and is meant to be worn on your lid, while the Step Two end has a slightly tapered tip for applying to your lashline and in your crease.

Close-ups of the two ends.
Step One is a rose shade and Step Two is a warm brown.

Before swatching or applying, my concern was about the tapered Step Two end. With use, the tapered point will get worn down and since it's meant to be used for more precise, thin application, using it will increasingly result in smudgier and smudgier looks.

I admit that my first instinct was to use brushes to apply this product, but I opted to stick with the instructions on the package and the CoverGirl website for this review.

Purple Plume swatched

As you can see by the swatches, these cream eyeshadows aren't very pigmented and have a metallic sparkle to them. In my experience, smoky eyes work best when you start light and build your colour, blending as you go, layering sparkly shades (if you use it) over more matte shades. So I was skeptical about how well these would work in producing a satisfying smoky eye.

Here's Purple Plume applied.

Purple Plume applied as per instructions

As you can see, it's very, very soft in terms of pigmentation. I did not wear an eyeshadow primer or apply any product, such as a translucent powder on top for staying powder. Within 5-10 minutes the product had begun to travel into my crease (you can even see it beginning in the right photo). 

I also found the colours too similar in intensity to really differentiate enough. I had to work to get any intensity at all, in fact and layered quite heavily to get the effect you see above. The instructions tell you to use your finger to blend the product out. It was actually quite difficult to see the Step One colour on my lids while I was applying it and the Step Two colour only provided a reasonable darkness and dimension to my crease. I could not seem to get it to show up very much, perhaps because of the amount of Step One I applied.

I itched to apply powder eyeshadow on top, for longevity and for pigment but didn't for the sake of this review.

Silver Sky was moderately better in terms of the look but the same in terms of staying power and application.

Close-ups of the two ends.

Step One is a medium silver and Step Two is a silvery plum shade.

Silver Sky swatched.

Again, the colours don't differ much in terms of intensity and are quite metallic.

Silver Sky applied:

I did much prefer the effect of Silver Sky over Purple Plume because I do like a silvery eye, but again, this is far from a smoky eye for me. As you can see the Step Two colour doesn't have any effect in adding dimension to my crease or emphasizing my lashline. It blends almost completely into the Step One colour on my lid.

Overall, I would not recommend these. They definitely need an eyelid primer underneath and a powder to help them set on top (which would likely minimize their sparkle). The colours aren't bad, but then they're more about the shimmer than pigmentation. I might wear Silver Sky again but definitely under another eyeshadow since it creases so quickly on my oily lids. 

C.

The Tip Off: Clear Mascara = Eyebrow Gel

I've never been a fan of clear mascara, though I know many women are. I like my lashes long, lush, thick and black, but I do have a use for clear mascara afterall. Brow gel!

I have full, heavy-ish brows that I need to constantly groom and I trim them every few weeks to thin them out and to make them more manageable. Just like how your hair gets increasingly unmanageable as it grows, so do the hairs of your eyebrows. Brow gel can help keep them in place, much like hairspray does the same for your hair.

However, I don't like paying a lot for a product so minor in my beauty toolkit, although there a lot of options if you want or need something more specific to your brows. All I do, however, is sweep clear mascara onto my brows to give them a bit of staying powder. I am currently using JoeFresh's clear mascara ($6 CDN). It's not shiny or sticky and gives my brows a bit extra oomph and polish.

C.

MAC: Spring Colour Forecast

Last night I was invited to MAC's Spring Colour Forecast preview party. Although I'm a very good customer of MAC's, this was the first launch party I was invited to...

And I think that was a good thing because it was crazy. Way too packed to do some good swatching and browsing. Needless to say I did not come home empty handed. Here's a quick look at what I hauled. Please note I wanted to purchase the Colour 4 eye shadow palette, but somehow it did not come home with me, so I have no picks from the Colour 4 (amber) grouping!

The Spring Colour Forecast "paint chip" card!

Colour 1 (pink) picks: Blush Ombre Azalea Blossom, Crush Metal Pigment Stacked 1!

Colour 2 (coral): Blush Ombre Ripe Peach, Crush Metal Pigment Stacked 2!

Colour 3 (plum): Blush Ombre Vintage Grape, Colour 3 eye palette

General (Quick) Comments

MAC must be overcompensating for something with this release, because it is HUGE, a whopping 41 items (not including scents)!!! My initial thoughts:

Colour 2 (coral) - has the prettiest lipsticks. People who love coral will flip over the colours and even the skeptics (if they are willing to try them on) will walk away with at least one of these shades. I myself intend to get 3 - I held off at the launch because I need to spread the spending out a bit! Of the 4 Ombre Blushes, the one that belongs to this grouping, Ripe Peach, is my favourite and it so pretty on.

Colour 3 (plum) - the top right hand colour in the quad, Bruised Plum, is gorgeous - I pretty much bought the quad for it. There is no dupe for this antiqued mauvey rose in MAC's permanent collection.

Colour 4 (amber) - has the best eye shadows, the quad is beautiful and full of veluxe pearl textures! Again, I should have this item to show you but the MA forgot to grab it for me. This is at the top of my "seconds" list.

Saty tuned for more swatches and reviews...I can't chat long right now as school is crushing me right at the moment.

Let us know what you hauled!

J

MAC Spring Colour Forecast - Online Now!

This release completely snuck up on me! Today MAC released their Spring Colour Forecast collections. That's right, collections. There are four of them. This is an enormous release.

Four collections based around four colours - pink, plum, coral and amber.

Spring Colour 1 Forecast Pink and Spring Colour 2 Forecast Coral both consist of four shadows, four lipsticks, three tinted lipglasses, a stacked pigment, a blush, a nail polish and a fragrance.

Spring Colour 3 Forecast Plum and Spring Colour 4 Forecast Amber both consist of an eyeshadow quad, two lipsticks, two tinted lipglasses, a blush and a nail polish.

Picks: 

Eyeshadows: Rosy Outlook, Very Violet, Hot Hot Hot and Straw Harvest.

Lipsticks: Laugh-a-lot, Pink Burst, Radicchio, Hang Up, Rose Maiden, Fresh Salmon, Colour Me Coral and Beigeland.

Lipglasses: Hush, Hush Rose, Electric Fuchsia, Kumquat and Cha Cha.

NEW PRODUCT! Stacked Pigments: These are a newish product - a cross between Solar Bits and a chunkier pigment. Each comes with four colours in four stackable containers. Stacked 1 and Stacked 2 are both picks for me.

NEW PRODUCT! Blush Ombres: Azalea Blossom and Ripe Peach.

Eyeshadow Quads: Colour 3 and Colour 4 are both picks for me.

Nail Lacquers: All four nail lacquers are picks.

Jill was invited to the MAC Spring Forecast Preview Party and to see what goodies she came away with, click here!

There is absolutely something in this collection for everyone! If you're in the market for new make-up you could do a lot worse than checking out MAC's Spring Colour Forecast.

C.

LUSTING: Marc Jacobs Lola Perfume Cocktail Ring

A few months ago I lusted after Marc Jacobs' new fragrance, Lola and particularly after the bottle! No more lusting for me as now I can get a Lola cocktail ring with that same gorgeous bold, sculptural and ribbony blossom from the top of the perfume bottle.

Lusting!

C.