Beauty Squared Round-Up for August 9, 2015

Happy Sunday lovelies!

Let's jump right in, shall we? 

• An excellent article on contouring, written by a makeup artist who breaks down what contouring is, how to do it, and why it's used (and not used).
  
• Nude lipstick is the opposite of red lipstick but it's no easier to track down your perfect nude lipstick than it is the perfect red. Here's how to do it.
  
• Everyone loves a hack (apart from maybe someone who breaks into computers or a certain type of painful cough or someone who ). Ahem, anyway, how about some lipstick hacks?
  
• More beauty hacks!
  
• Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics has (finally) come out with new packaging for their popular Lip Tars.
  
• Would you wear pink on your lips, eyes and cheeks? Here's how one woman translated the Spring 2015 runway trend on her own face - pretty!
  
• Beauty products for swimmers.
  
• Tweezerman has come out with an eyelash curler specifically made for deepset and almond-shaped eyes.
  
• Did you know that you can use undereye liner to alter the shape of your eyes? Here's how to make your eyes look rounder, elongated or more sultry.
  
• How can you tell if your natural beauty products are actually natural?
  
• An eyebrow-thickening serum that you can make at home.
  
• A Korean sticker that can shrink zits overnight.
  
• A round-up of next generation lip balms.
  
• Do you wear mineral sunscreen? You should read this.
  
• An argument for not washing your face in the morning.
  
• Drinking water doesn't just keep your body hydrated, and well, alive. It can improve the condition of your skin, teeth and hair. Here are some tips for drinking water.
  
• Dry skin brushing can increase circulation, exfoliate the skin, and improve skin texture. Here's how to do it and why you should.
  
• Hair treatments for dry hair you can do at home, with stuff from your kitchen!
  
• Ah, humidity. Evil, evil humidity making your hair all frizzy. Here's how to fight it.
  
• Does rinsing your hair with cold water actually make it shinier?
  
• Getting a drastic haircut holds the promise of a positive life change. Following a breakup or another big life change, new hair promises to give you a fresh outlook, to change your personality. But does it always give us what is promised? One woman reflects back on how a drastic haircut changed her life.
  
• Photographer Adama Jalloh celebrates black British girlhood through her photos of black girls having their hair done.
  
• Women who wear makeup earn more and are treated better than women who don't, but what toll is this makeup tax having on us?
  
• Model Elizaveta Bulokhova has posed for her first photos since losing her jaw to oral cancer. Beautiful.

Beauty Squared Round-Up - October 6, 2013

Hello lovelies! It's October, the best month of the year*, when the leaves are turning glorious colours, the air is cooler, the sunsets are spectacular, and we're all planning our Hallowe'en costumes.

Loads in this week's Round-Up (since we missed last week's - oops!). Let's get to it!

• Nylon magazine has a story about primers, why you need them and some to consider trying.
• Tracy from Beauty Reflections has a review and swatches of some of the Fall Art Deco collection. Glorious eyeshadows, mascara, blushes and an eye primer!
• Beautylish has a step-by-step at-home waxing tutorial. 
• Short hair. Some of us love it, some of us are terrified by it, some of us are ambivalent. All of you should take a read of this Elle Canada story about an editor who took the plunge and discovered her "life cut". 
• Blurred lips are a fall 2013 trend. I admit that this sometimes happens on me accidentally, but if you want to give it a try deliberately - check out this Pixiwoo tutorial.
• Cuticle oil can make or break your manicure. If you do your own nails, you should check this out. 
• Speaking of manicures: do you love glitter nail polish? Do you also hate trying to remove it? Here's a tip to make removing glitter polish a snap!
• The NY Times looks are the bold eyebrow - in for fall 2013!!
• And Michelle Phan has some tips on filling in your eyebrows to make them fuller and thicker.
• This isn't make-up related but it's beauty related. If you fret about what you see in the mirror, diet, worry about calories and exercise to lose weight, you should read this excellent blog post.
• Some of the folks at Toronto's Global News morning show took inspiration from Denise Jolly's Be Beautiful campaign and took their clothes off on camera. Incredibly inspirational!
• OK, this is a hack that we all need to know about. What trick can that eyelash curler do, aside from curling our lashes? Click through to find out. 

Beauty Squared Round-Up - January 20, 2013

The beauty links we thought you should check out for this week...

A great step-by-step eyeliner tutorial.

Pregnancy can take a toll on your skin. 

Here are some tips on how to maintain your pre-pregnancy skin.

Drew Barrymore's new makeup line has launched.

One in five South Korean women have undergone plastic surgery with many opting for 

 bigger eyes, narrower noses and slimmer jawlines. 

Makeup artist Lucky Bromhead shares her favourite inexpensive beauty products. 

Uses for baking soda. 

Tips on making your manicure last and last. 

Do you have trouble making your eyelashes keep their curl? Here's a step you may be missing.

A dramatic cat eye look inspired by Adele. 

Neutral lipstick - how to wear it like a pro. 

Beauty Squared Round-Up - December 23, 2012

We're deep in holiday season but we're not ignoring the internet. How could we? Here's some of the best stuff we've found online in the last week:

The history of the polka dot. 

Kohl eyeliner: why you should love it. 

The best nail looks of 2012 according to Glamour magazine.

Eyeshadow pencils are great if you're a little lazy about wearing eyeshadow.

The classic powder puff isn't a common beauty tool anymore. Here's why you should maybe look twice at it in your beauty regime.

Some tips to rid yourself of stained nails. 

A super-gorgeous Vanessa Paradis/Brigitte Bardot sex kitten look from Pixiwoo.

'Tis the season....for red lips. 

Girl crush and long time Cover Girl, Drew Barrymore, is collaborating with WalMart on a new makeup line.

Torture device or beauty kit must-have? Tips on choosing the best eyelash curler for you.

MAC Carine Roitfeld Preview and Photos

Carine Roitfeld elevated the smoky eye to an art form. For her M·A·C collaboration, Carine edits her look into a collection of chic colours and tools for recreating her aesthetic. Full Face Kit contain four Eye Shadows and Cremeblend Blush, Eye Brows in Brunette, Kohl Power Eye Pencil, Fluidline, 49 Lash and two Mascaras. Tropical Mist Lipstick, Face and Body Foundation, Mineralize Concealer, Nail Lacquer and Brushes create the perfect backdrop for dramatic eyes.

Available August 30.

49 Lash
$19.00 CDN/$16.00 US

Full Lash Curler
$24.00 CDN/$20.00 US

Slant Tweezer
$40.00 CDN/$33.00 US

Brow Set
Clear
$19.00 CDN/$16.00 US

191 Square Foundation Brush
$39.50 CDN/$33.00 US

266 Small Angle
$24.00 CDN/$20.00 US

275 Medium Angled Shading
$30.00 CDN/$25.00 US

Eye Brows in Brunette
Grey brown
$18.00 CDN/$15.00 US

Face and Body Foundation in C4
$32.00 CDN/$27.00 US

Fluidline in Blacktrack
$18.00 CDN/$15.00 US

Full Face Kit in Desert Camouflage
Sahara Dust - Light neutral beige (satin)
Cactus Thorn - Mid-tone brown bronze (frost)
Desert - Shimmering warm taupe (satin)
Carbon - Intense black (matte)
Sandstorm - Soft sheer warm caramel
$52.00 CDN/$44.00 US

Full Face Kit in Jungle Camouflage
Dew - Soft creamy beige (veluxe pearl)
"Camo" - Muted greyish taupe (satin)
Bad Lieutenant - Blackened deep brown (matte)
Carbon - Intense black (matte)
Bootcamp Bronze - Soft sheer chestnut
$52.00 CDN/$44.00 US

Kohl Power Eye Pencil in Feline
$18.00 CDN/$15.00 US

Lipstick in Tropical Mist
Sheer translucent nude
$20.00 CDN/$16.50 US

Mascara in Studio Fix Boldblack Lash
$19.00 CDN/$16.00 US

Mascara in Zoomfast Black Lash
$19.00 CDN/$16.00 US

Mineralize Concealer in NC35
$24.00 CDN/$20.00 US

Nail Lacquer in Undercover Nude
Sheer clear nude (cream)
$21.00 CDN/$17.50 US

Nail Lacquer in Underfire Red
Deep blood red (cream)
$21.00 CDN/$17.50 US

Studio Fix Fluid SPF 30 in NC30
$32.00 CDN/$27.00 US

Lashes! Lashes! Lashes!

I am often asked what kind of mascara I use. Admittedly, I lucked out in the lash department when my DNA was being sorted out and it's not really fair to just answer the question without such a disclaimer.

I find that mascara is almost as personalized to the user as foundation. There's tonnes of mascaras out there to choose from - from your drugstore brands to your luxury tubes to your prescriptions for longer, lusher lashes. It can be confusing, I know! For example, what is with this crazy brush from Givenchy? Granted, I've never tried it, but from my experience it looks like it'll be all kinds of blotchy, clumpy messiness.

Start at the drugstore. My first piece of advice when looking for a mascara is to start with the cheaper brands. Mascara formulas don't vary all that much from brand to brand - that Covergirl tube at WalMart is similar in recipe to the Dior ones at the department store. However, some brands are wetter than others and this will have the same effect on your lashes as rain on curled hair.

Maybelline and Cover Girl, specifically, are a good place to start. L'Oreal has some good ones as well, but Maybelline Great Lash is the go-to for many a make-up artist (we Beauty Squared girls too!).  Start cheap and work your way up to the more expensive brands. Chances are you'll find an inexpensive tube that you love!

The brush. Another important thing to consider is the brush. Unfortunately for many drugstore brands you can't always see the brush before you buy the product but some brands, like CoverGirl are now selling their mascaras with the wand outside of the mascara tube. Personally, I like the smallest brush I can find because it really gets to every lash, root to tip.

Reuse and Recycle. I bought a Too Faced Mascara last year and while the mascara was ok, what I really liked was the brush, so I cleaned it and kept it once the mascara was used up. I recommend doing this if you find a brush you really like. It's a bit of a pain to clean it after each use (otherwise the product will dry, harden and get crumbly) but worth it when you find a brush that really works for your lashes.

Currently, I have 4 mascaras in my make-up kit - JoeFresh mascara, Bare Escentuals Buxom Lash, Benefit BADGal Mascara in Blue and Maybelline Great Lash. I use them all, but JoeFresh for day and Buxom for drama, the most frequently.

Clockwise from top left: Benefit BadGal Mascara in Blue, JoeFresh Mascara in Black, 

Buxom Lash in Black and Maybelline Great Lash in Blackest Black

A close-up of Buxom Lash's brush.

A close-up of JoeFresh's brush that I've bent on an angle to better get to my lashes.

TIP: One of the most important tips any make-up artist can offer about applying mascara is to blot the wand/brush with a tissue before applying. This allows the excess product to be removed and you'll have less clumps, less wetness and less difficulty applying.

The eyelash curler. It's hardly just mascara to take the all the credit for gorgeous lashes. The secret is the eyelash curler. If you've never used one before, please put aside your fear, I know it looks like a torture instrument but once you get the hang of it, you'll want to cuddle with it and never let it out of your sight. My eyelashes are long, naturally straight and point slightly downwards, so curling them is a necessity for me. It does just what you've heard - it opens up your eyes, making you look bright-eyed and awake and it makes your eyes look bigger!

Shu Uemura. I've used a number of eyelash curlers - plastic, metal, Tweezerman, Cover Girl, Revlon, Sephora brand - and the best by far has been Shu Uemura's. It's quite a bit pricier than drugstore brands, but it makes curling your lashes so easy, quick and effortless, it is definitely worth the price! The difference lies in the curve and the control you have over the "pinch".  The Shu Uemura curler has a shallower curve than other curlers so it works well on most eyeshapes and lashlines. It's easy to place over your lashes and slides right to the base for an effortless fit and curl. Unlike many of the more inexpensive lash curlers, the Shu Uemura curler has a narrow opening with just the right amount of give in its hinge to create a gentle, natural curl with limited pressure.

My Shu Uemura eyelash curler

Here is a good little video instructional on how to curl your lashes if you've never done it before. Always remember to use a clean curler and only curl clean lashes.

And those are my tips for how to make the most of your lashes. Feel free to ask any questions and let us know how it works for you!

C.