Beauty Squared Round-Up for July 5, 2015

Happy Sunday! Time for some beauty links. Are you ready?

Let's go.

• Happy Canada Day! Celebrating our wonderful country continues with a round-up of some of the best homegrown fashion and beauty brands.
  
• Looking forward to fall already (yes), we're loving the looks of NARS' 2015 Fall Colour Collection.
  
• Kim K-style contouring and why it needs to stop.
  
• What is strobing? The awesome Jackie Aina explains, hilariously.
  
• First just contouring, now clown contouring. Just no, stop it now.
  
• Baking is another makeup technique getting some buzz. It's a drag technique for setting your undereye concealer and achieving a flawless finish Here's how to do it.
  
• A much more simple eyeshadow technique called the "secret eye pop".
  
• Eight crowdfunded beauty innovations you need to know about.
  
• How to curl your lashes without an eyelash curler.
  
• Planning a honeymoon? Here are the beauty items you shouldn't forget to pack.
  
• Are the chemicals in sunscreen worse for you than tanning?
  
• Lisa Eldridge has a great make-up tutorial for glasses-wearers - both near-sighted and far-sighted.
  
• Sephora.ca shoppers, take note of some significant changes that are coming to your selections and shipping. 

Beauty Squared Round-Up for November 23, 2014

Hello! There's a whole lotta beauty stuff to share with you this morning and I'm on my second cup of Yorkshire Gold, so let's do this! Hope you enjoy.

• Starting with a jolt, here's MUA Charlotte Tilbury recreates a starry-eyed look worn by Kate Moss. And I mean starry-eyed.
  
• What sort of beauty tips can you find in a 1932 beautician text book?
  
• Do you conceal your dark undereye circles? Maybe you shouldn't. Maybe none of us should.
  
• An interview with Frank Toskan, co-founder of MAC Cosmetics. If you love MAC, read this.
  
• A few weeks ago, we featured a Lisa Eldridge video where she did a Downton Abbey-inspired makeup look on Downton Abbey star, Laura Carmichael (she plays Lady Edith). In this video she takes that barely-there makeup look to an evening, red carpet look.
  
• Another video by Lisa Eldridge, this one a fantastic casually-chic evening look that looks great but doesn't look like you tried too hard.
  
• We all wash our hair, but how many of us are doing it correctly? Check out this Allure.com article about how to do it the right way.
  
• MUA Ashlee Glazer shows how to look holiday party ready in just 5 minutes, how to look great with a post-holiday party hangover, and how to look fresh after a long flight home for the holidays.
  
• Face mapping and how your breakouts are (may be) linked to your overall health and how to prevent them.
  
• 12 beauty products that can (almost) change your life.
  
• Here are some weird beauty tricks. Do you have any of your own?
  
• If you wear liquid or gel eye liner, you know how easy it is to mess it up, even if you've been doing it for years. Here's how you can fix it if you do.
  
• It's winter in Canada, so the air is colder (outside) and dryer (both inside and outside), and it's holiday season (food, drink, late nights, stress). Here are some beauty fixes to help you deal with the season. 
• How to fight dry lips, wine-stained teeth and everything else cold weather brings. 
• The end of liquid liner woes and how to achieve dewy skin in the winter.
  
• Alternative spa treatments (vibrating chairs, crystal healing, PEMF (electromagnetic energy)) that actually feel great.
  
• How to apply false lashes, step by step.
  
• How to get a sexy, youthful eyebrow, just with a spoolie brush and some brow gel.
  
• Makeup product names and marketing seem to be getting saucier and saucier. Remember when the name Orgasm (the iconic NARS blush) was risqué? Product names used to be Fire and Ice, and Dusky Heather while now more and more products have names like Snatch, Spunk, Bang, Perversion and Full Frontal.
  
• Four women have launched a class action lawsuit against Sephora after the disastrous 20% off sale a few weeks ago. The lawsuit alleges discrimination, that Sephora purposely blocked customers from making online purchases because they are of Chinese descent. 

Beauty Squared Round-Up - October 19, 2014

Hello lovelies,
Hope you're having a spectacular Fall day. If not, hopefully you're somewhere cosy and comfortable, or will be soon. 

Here is our weekly round-up of beauty-related weblinks for you!

• Check out these "photoshopped" photos from the 1930s. (These photos aren't photoshopped, they're retouched.)
  
• "Alien vampire goddess" Tilda Swinton will be featured in NARS' spring 2015 ad campaign.
  
• Save some money and buy these beauty supply items at the art supply store.
  
• More Instagram makeup transformations, this time from Lucia Pittalis, who has transformed herself into Keith Richards, Iggy Pop and Walter White from Breaking Bad.
  
• MUA Lisa Eldridge does a very natural Downton Abbey makeup look on Downton star, Lady Edith herself, Laura Carmichael. This look is perfect for anyone who wants a no-makeup makeup look.
  
• Need a Halloween costume? How about Marge Simpson? Check out this awesome tutorial.
  
• Can an extremely talented, very experienced, awesome MUA like Pat McGrath do someone's makeup with her eyes closed? Model Natalia Vodianova challenged her to do just that in this short film. Do you think it's real?

Beauty Squared Round-Up for August 24, 2014

Hello lovelies!

Happy Sunday. 

• Kandee Johnson reviews the new Urban Decay Naked Basics 2 palette. 
• Do you have curly hair? This post is for you. 
• A step-by-step guide for applying false eyelashes. 
• I love this elegant ruby twist on the French manicure done by Rita Remark for Essie Canada.  
• Anna Sui has revamped her line of lipsticks. You've never seen a lipstick like this before. 
• Makeup bag essentials for beginner, intermediate and professional makeup wearers. 
• An absolutely stunning lavender smokey eye look by Lisa Eldridge done on Sophie Dahl. (Look for an upcoming Beauty Squared post where Catherine recreates this!)
• Laverne Levinson writes about why she uses Photoshop on photos of her face. It's perhaps food for thought.
• Related: here's XOVain's Alle with tips on becoming more photogenic (it's a learned skill!).
• Is a younger face more of a blank canvas than an older face? The Guardian's Invisible Woman talks about her experience with makeup now that she's nearing 60. 

Beauty Squared Round-Up - June 15, 2014

Good morning lovelies,

Here are some beauty links to get your Sunday going...

• Do you hate wearing sunscreen? Allure attempts to solve your sunscreen problems with a list of sunscreens that address breakout issues, odour, wearing makeup on top, and ashiness, among other things.
  
• Here's a makeup trick that will help get the skin on your legs, arms and decolletage (or what other body parts are exposed) camera-ready.
  
• A cult-favourite Korean BB cream - Holika Holika's Aqua Petit Jelly - is now available in Canada! Read Beauty Editor's review of it here.
  
• MUA Kandee Johnson talks eyebrows and shows us how she does her own. She talks very quickly (and has edited the video in a choppy way) but lots to learn here about defining your eyebrows!
  
• From brows to lashes: Fashion Magazine's Beauty Panel shares their tips for lashes - from falsies to just amping up your mascara game.
  
• Tracy from Beauty Reflections talks about one of her favourite blushes - Make Up For Ever's HD Second Skin Cream Blush #150 - Raspberry.
  
• This video is swoon-worthy. MUA Lisa Eldridge got fashion icon and IT girl Alexa Chung to sit down to do a video tutorial with her. Anyone who has envied Alexa's perfect and perfectly iconic eyeliner needs to watch this - she applies her own!
  
• We've all seen the photos of celebs on the red carpet sporting some embarrassing makeup mishaps (Nicole Kidman, Angelina Jolie, Drew Barrymore) and you're maybe aware of the heavy contouring done on celebrities such as Kim Kardashian, to achieve the most perfect photos possible. The thing is, the makeup done on these celebs is done that way for a reason. It's meant to look best in specific lighting and under a camera's flash. Sometimes it goes wrong, and often, it can look overdone in person, if not in photos. MUA Nick Barose explains why these red carpet makeup looks should not be attempted in real life.

Beauty Squared Round-Up - March 9, 2014

Hello lovelies! It's time again for our weekly round-up. 

• Dry hair? Here's a two ingredient, DIY hair mask for your parched locks.
• Accio Lacquer's Mishka talks about her nail polish line and fanicures - manicures inspired by some favourite TV series and characters.
• A quick trick to get rid of post-manicure stained nails.
• How to choose eyeshadow shades for your eye colour.
• A review of Urban Decay's crazy colourful Electric Palette.
• Looking forward to spring, here are 26 of the best spring beauty products to snap up now.
• And here are 20 more!
• The Muse reviews the new Olay Regenerist Luminous Dark Circle Correcting Hydraswirl.
• A tutorial for a naturally flattering everyday makeup look for everyone that can be transitioned (with a bit of bold lip colour) to an evening look.
• Nicole Kidman is playing Princess Grace Kelly of Monaco on the big screen. Check out her bang-on retro, feminine look here.
• Speaking of actresses...well, if you saw last week's Oscars broadcast, you may have seen 81-year-old Kim Novak onstage. Sadly, the online mockery she received, as did Matthew McConaughey's mother and Liza Minelli, was just an example of how cruelly we and view aging women, particularly those who appear onscreen. 

Estée Lauder Bronze Goddess Summer 2012: Shimmering Sands Illuminating Powder Gelée Review and Swatches

After watching Lisa Eldridge's beautiful summer metallic tutorial I ran directly to Estée Lauder's website and purchased the Bronze Sands Pure Colour Gelée Powder eye shadow palette, see here for review and swatches. I also succumbed to the charms of Shimmering Sands Illuminating Powder Gelée ($50.00 CA). All photos taken in natural light, NC 35/40 skin, product is LE.

 Estée Lauder Shimmering Sands Illuminating Powder Gelée
blended out from right to left

To recap, EL about a year ago came out with a tri-blend formula that combines pigments in a gel base, This gel formula givesthis product a simultaneously dry, powdery and creamy texture. From the name, I assume Shimmering Sands is marketed as a highlighter. It has a deep, shimmery reddish bronze colour and is so highly pigmented that it really makes this product a bronzer/blush. The shimmer factor is not overwhelming, and it's subtle glow makes this wearable for both day and night. This product is so intensely pigmented that you need the lightest of applications. I recommend using a duo fibre brush such as MAC's 188 or 109 and simply touching the brush on top of the product to ensure you don't pick up too much. The good news is that this product blends easily and buffs out nicely. Given this product's density, I don't know what EL was thinking by including an oversize foam tip applicator. I would expect clown-like results if you try their provided method of application!

I think this product will suit warmer skin tones on the medium - dark end of the spectrum a little better than cooler, fairer skin tones. Due to it's red base and very strong pigmentation, lighter skin tones may find this product gives them a more "sun burnt" than bronzed look. That being said I do think you could get this to work for a fair, cool complexion, it would just require a very light hand and plenty of blending.

Fans of MAC will note that the recent In Extra Dimension Highlighters closely resemble Shimmer Sands. If you liked that formulation you will also like this product (and vice versa). A good thing to note is that none of the MAC highlighters are dupes for Shimmering Sands. Glorify would come the closest, but it is much more orange, coppery and shimmery (and less wearable in my opinion) than Shimmering Sands.

At the time of writing this post, this product was still available online, and qualifies you for free shipping.

Overall grade: B+

J

My Make-up with Marilyn

I recently watched the Oscar nominated film "My Week with Marilyn", and then came across this excellent and incredibly thorough tutorial on Marilyn Munroe's iconic makeup look from UK makeup artist Lisa Eldridge.

Marilyn Munroe

Actress Michelle Williams transforming into Marilyn for "My Week with Marilyn".

Lisa Eldridge's Marilyn Munroe - Iconic Make-up Look

Not only is this tutorial well produced and shot, all the techniques are excellently demonstrated and explained by Eldridge. Eldridge has obviously done her research into the specifics of how Marilyn's look was constructed, and reveals many of the interesting tricks used to produce Marilyn's signature style. I was surprised to learn that Marilyn's make-up artist, Whitey Snyder, created the illusion of extremely full lashes in part by drawing in a false cast shadow on her lower eye line. Other, less theatrical tricks revealed by Eldridge could be used in everyday make-up, such as highlighting around the nose to create the sense of broader cheekbones.

Another aspect of this video I appreciate is the historical and personal context Eldridge gives us about Marilyn. It is well narrated and interesting beyond the expert make-up application.

J