Archive for the Category »foundation/base «

Feb
16
Maybelline Loot.
SomethingPurple

Two weeks ago, I received this package full of Maybelline Loot plus a bagtag which I find very cute in the mail. I was not expecting this to come after I spoke with my friend who was supposed to send this last year haha. So yes, this loot came my friend, H, who is one of Maybelline’s NY Color Artists and he would often give me a portion of his make-up allowance. hee hee. This was what he sent me, a first Maybelline loot in 2010. Looking forward to more freebies this year.

P365-MMX:0206
I am going to make an extensive review on this however, I need to check on these acne pills first. So these include the following: (most are new products)

  • Angel Fit Flawless Natural Two Way Cake Foundation
  • Watershine Collagen Shimmer in B23
  • Watershine Pure in M31
  • Clear Smooth Minerals Healthy Natural Luminous Blush in NOO Soft Mauve
  • Vivid & Smooth liner in Plum and Green
  • Volum Express Cat Eyes Mascara Waterproof Hypercurl
Category: Maybelline, blush blush!, color your books, curl those lashes, eye sticks, foundation/base, lipcolors  Tags:  One Comment
Dec
18
Best of Smashbox Sampler Kit.
SomethingPurple

I was checking on furnace filters, when I chanced upon this email from Smashbox. How genius of Smashbox to give their customers a chance to try out the best of their best products. My friend, J was just asking me how Smashbox cosmetics are in terms of their foundation finish and texture. I told her that after years and years of searching for the right concealer, the Smashbox Camera-ready Full coverage Concealer Stick (in #2) is the best concealer to cover my dark undereye circles. Too bad it is not part of this sampler kit. But for all of you who wants to try Smashbox foundation and primer, this is a practical. Think of the bonus o-gloss and other lip glosses that are part of this sampler kit. Enabler mode, on!
media.nl
Includes: Mini Artificial Light in Glow, Mini Photo Finish Foundation Primer SPF 15 + Dermaxyl, Mini Photo Finish Foundation Primer Light, Mini O-Gloss Intuitive Lip Gloss, Mini Photo Op Under Eye Brightener, Cream Eye Liner Duo (full size!) in Caviar/Midnight Brown, Mini Eye Shadow Trio in Headshot, Mini Baked Fusion Soft Lights in Stardust, 2 Mini Lip Enhancing Glosses in Pout & Afterglow
$35.00

Category: eye sticks, foundation/base, lipcolors, palette for the eyes, sale, smashbox  Tags: ,  Leave a Comment
Oct
02
ding ding ding, and the winner is…
SomethingPurple

My make-up artist friend, H swears by this and in fact hoarded this item when he was in NYC for a training. It is really a lot cheaper if you purchase this in the U.S. and wait for Urban Decay’s quarterly discounts. Anyways, I am talking about the Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion. I have tried a couple of other eyeshadow primer brands but by far, this is the one that lasts more than 8 hours leaving my 2-3 blended eyeshadows without crease and smudges. It can also act as a nice base color and gives your blended eyeshadows long-lasting sharp colors. Now that I found the best Eyeshadow Primer, I’m off to find the  best acne treatment.
P5300261

Category: Urban Decay, eye sticks, foundation/base, palette for the eyes  Tags: , ,  Leave a Comment
Aug
04
When to Dump Your Make-Up!
SomethingPurple
Image Swiped from Google Search.

Image Swiped from Google Search.

Here’s a quick run down of the life span of Make-Up before I head on to buy some kitchen rugs. I still wonder what Hoarders and Make-up Addicts do when their Make-Up expires. I bet they just keep throwing them away to make room for newer ones.

This is one of the reasons I control myself from hoarding because I know it’s never healthy to use expired make-up.

  • MASCARA:4-6 Months
  • EYELINER:1 Year
  • FOUNDATION&CONCEALER:1 Year
  • BLUSH&EYESHADOW:1-2 Years
  • LIPSTICK:8 Months
  • BRUSHES:A year of longer, even forever, depends on the brand and how you care for it.
Category: blush blush!, color your books, conceal the mark, cosmetics brush, eye sticks, foundation/base, lipcolors, palette for the eyes, skincare, the pro artist, tricks of the trade  Leave a Comment
Aug
01
My MAC must-haves
SomethingPurple

I would probably be the last beauty blogger to be raving about MAC. It’s just that it is not one of my top make-up brand favorites. You would see me checking on counters of Laura Mercier, Benefit, Smashbox, NARS, Clinique, Urban Decay, Shu Uemura, Stila and other nice drugstore brands but not much on MAC counters. I do not really know, maybe I should spend more time on their counters. That or you can blame my 1st MAC encounter which turned into a blunder. My skin broke out on their liquid foundation! I have read and heard raves on their brushes but yay on the price tags, especially if you have house bills and important house furnishing purchases such as a Danze faucet to prioritize.

However, these 3 purchases are just so hard to resist and I consider them my MAC must-haves.

  • MAC Fix+ is An aqua-spritz of vitamin and minerals, infused with a calm-the-skin blend of green tea, chamomile, cucumber, topped off with the fresh, natural, energizing scent of Sugi.  It adds radiance, finishes makeup. Spray i and make your skin appears dewey and healthy. I love that it also helps settle your make-up to your skin and making them long-wearing.
  • MAC Brush Cleaner is your best tool to clean those brushes. It cleans, disinfects, and conditions your brush fibers making them last longer and very soft. This also lessens the drying time.
  • MAC Studio Fix Powder plus Foundation is a powder and foundation in one that combines good coverage with ease of application. Designed to be used dry, the powder and pigments create a matte, velvety texture. It does not give you the super dry coverage, just enough to make your skin look healthy and radiant.

P1010384

Category: MAC, cosmetics brush, foundation/base, tricks of the trade  Leave a Comment
Apr
12
thoughts on EverydayMinerals: haul over haul (part 3)
SomethingPurple

If you read my 2 previous posts, you can therefore conclude that I have become addicted to EverydayMinerals and I could not stop raving about this cosmetic line to everyone I speak with :) . This is my 2nd haul, ordered a week after I tried on the free sample kit.

2nd ORDER: Sample plus additional

2nd EM HAUL/LOOT:
*2 puff jars which I still do not understand how the puffing works so they ended up as mixing jars and bag jars.
*1 Large Mixing Jar. I am definitely gonna buy more of this.
*Sample Finishing Dust, this is nice to drive away the shine and oil but I can do away with this because the base itself do not leave me with oily finish,only glowing and dewy effect.
*Sample Natural Reflections Fair Finishing Powder. (too white and too matte for me, thus creating a flatter finish)
*Baby Kabuki, you can omit this if you’re getting the long kabuki brush. Nice for your purse and vanity kits, though.

2ND SAMPLE KIT, (always get free sample kit when ordering, you pay for the shipping so why not include another sample):
BASE: Golden Medium-original glo, Sunkissed Fair-semi matte, Buttered Tan-semi matte—too yellow for me, my skin colors turn exactly like that of a butter color. I guess these bases oxidized on my acidic skintone.
CONCEALER: Intensive Medium (dark for my skintone so I have to mix it with Intensive Fair &/or multitasking)
BLUSH: Salon Fun

FREEBIES: (they usually give out freebies for $15-$25 worth of orders. freebies vary every month so make sure to check that out.)
For the month of March, the freebies include 2 lipsticks. I got nude and cocoa. This is their only product in their line which I really find tacky. First, it gave out an odd-taste. Then, the shades may be nice but it dried out my lips.

3rd ORDER: Personal Custom Kit plus Sample, after 1.5 weeks hehehe.

3RD EM HAUL:
Personal Custom Kit (choice of anything so make sure to maximize the kit. fill it in with big sizes and brushes)
Brushes:
*Skunkless Foptic Brush (perfect for stippling/finishing)
*Long Handled Kabuki – the bristles are better than the baby kabuki.
*Flat Top brush – This is the perfect brush to blend blend blend!
BIG-SIZED BASE:
*Sunkissed Fair- Original Glo
*Light Olive -Semi Matte
BIG-SIZED CONCEALER:
*Multitasking Concealer (perfect concealer for my skintone, can be applied dry or wet)

Samples: (Again, don’t forget to get the samples every time you order)
BASE: Light Olive -Original Glo, Light Olive-Intensive, Light-Intensive,
CONCEALER: Mint Concealer ( I have red bumps on my cheeks now because of the weather, I use this to cover the red spots on my face. I apply this first to neutralize my skintone before applying the base. Almost comparable to Dior Mint Concealer )
BLUSH: All Smiles, a bit peachy. Apply with very little amount because it is very much pigmented.

PLUS FREEBIES again: 2 lipstick.

You notice I am hoarding on all mixture of Light Olive and Sunkissed Fair because these 2 shades are the perfect shades for my complexion.

In total, I have this HAUL in 3 weeks and I am tempted to order another Personal Custom Kit to fill in with more base (in olive light and sunkissed-fair), blushes (walkee talkee, cookie sheet, sprung) and a big-sized mint concealer.

Em's E.M. Haul :)
When I totaled all of the orders I have accumulated in a span of 3 weeks, I was surprised that I got it for a relatively small amount  almost like a total amount of buying a Laura Mercier Concealer plus Nars Lipstick and Blush :) . Money well-spent, I may say.

Now, I can’t wait to try out these 20 eyeshadow shades which I am splitting with 2 other EM fanatic/friends :) .  Expected to arrive tomorrow. (photo taken by glo)
untitled

Category: Everyday Minerals, color your books, foundation/base, lipcolors, palette for the eyes, sale, the pro artist, tricks of the trade  Tags:  One Comment
Apr
12
thoughts on EverydayMinerals: BE vs EM (part 2)
SomethingPurple

After I tried out the EverydayMinerals sample kit, I had to research and see what difference it has over the leading mineral make up which is Bare Escentuals.  Obviously, people would easily try out EverydayMinerals because of their free sample kits. I guess the company is pretty comfortable giving out this sample kit because they are fairly new in the business as opposed to BareMinerals which is 20 years old and that most of their clients testimonials would confirm that they did not have skin breakout. Giving out samples was a plus factor for me because it only shows that the company believed in their products to be able to give out tons of freebies and free sample kits.

1.) After some readings, I discovered that apparently EverydayMinerals HAS NO Bismuth Oxychloride which causes skin irritation. That is why the ratio of women who broke out with BareEscentuals(BE) are higher than those who use EverydayMinerals(EM) because BE contains these ingredients: titanium dioxide, zinc oxide, mica, iron oxide and bismuth oxychloride. While EM contains titanium dioxide, zinc oxide, mica, iron oxide ONLY. Bismuth Oxychloride can add to the sheen, almost shimmery factor of BareEscentuals.  However, this Bismuth Oxychloride can be quite heavy on the pores too because it is a lead by-product, no wonder EveryMinerals is much lighter on the face.

2.) The second factor would be the pricing and starter kits. Bare Minerals starter kit includes two foundations (3g each), mineral veil (6g), warmth (3g) and three brushes which is priced at $59 plus shipping. Everyday Minerals has Personal Custom Kits (6 item of your choice) priced at $34 and Super Custom Kit (12 items of your choice) priced at $50.  Then with EM, you can always try their FREE sample kit of 3 base, 1 concealer and 1 blush. You only have to pay for the shipping.

3.) EverydayMinerals has more shades(24 shades of base) and BareEscentuals has lesser shades (12 shades of base). What I did with my reject samples, I mixed them in a mixing jar and created a new base shade which I also use as everyday base. You would be surprised with the shades you can create by mixing their base. (more on this in a separate post).

4.) Store availability. The only downside with EverydayMinerals is the fact that they do not sell on retail stores. Everything is done via the internet, so the only way for you to try out their products is by ordering the sample kits.

5.) Packaging. I must admit that EverydayMinerals should improve on their packaging but with the amount I paid, I could not afford to complain about it. BareEscentuals has nicer packaging, though.

But then again, we all have different skin undertones and skin types. EverydayMinerals may work on my skin and BareEscentuals gave me skin breakouts, but your experience might be a different one.  So, it is very important to order the FREE sample kit before deciding to buy the big sizes. Make sure to try it for a week. Mind you, I slept on it overnight. That is what I usually do to check if a certain make-up brand would cause me skin irritation and if it is long-wearing enough to last a night’s sleep :) .

Glad to have all this mineral cosmetics line, at least we have enough choices with this eco-friendly make-up line plus we are assured that these stuff are cancer free, which reminds me, I need to check on this mesothelioma site.

Category: Everyday Minerals, foundation/base, the pro artist, tricks of the trade  Tags: ,  One Comment
Apr
12
thoughts on EverydayMinerals: Sample Kit.(part 1)
SomethingPurple

Before I begin writing about my new EM love (insert bliss bordering to OA-ness! lol), let me inform you that this is not a sponsored post. I have never recommended a certain make-up brand before which I love almost 100% of all their cosmetics line, so, this would be the first.

I was holding off this review for almost 3 weeks now because I wanted a validation on my part. This week was my 3rd week to own and use the Everyday Minerals cosmetic line every single day. Yes, even at home, I use their base and concealer because I wanted to see if I would break out and I have become addicted to their brushes bristles read: very soft, synthetic and eco-friendly. My skin is pretty sensitive with mineral make-up and could get a little bit flashy/reddish with constant brushing. I love the finish of Bare Escentuals but I ended up having skin breakouts and mild itchiness. I hold off using that and stick with my Maybelline and Clinique compacts. I also broke out with Mac Studio fix and my face tends to oxidize/turn yellowish on any Mac Foundation. Laura Mercier is another story because I just love their foundations and concealer :) .

Everyday Minerals has been a popular topic amongst my twitter friends but I detest to join the bandwagon because I know I will be distracted with school deadlines. I can be very unfocused when make-up is concerned aka Make-up can take over my life haha! Anyhow, the popularity reaches flickr! I could not help but smile every time I see my twitter friends posting their ‘face of the day’ or how their lack-of-sleep faces turned into glowing pretty faces all because of Everyday Minerals. So, 3 weeks ago, just a week before my Spring School break. I ordered the sample kit and I received them after a week. (ordered friday, came on a friday). All you need to pay was the shipping fee which was $3-4 depending on your location in U.S. They ship outside of US but of course, the shipping time and fees are different. The sample kit includes: 3 shades of base/foundation, 1 blush and 1 concealer. All packed in 5 grams mini-jars, but content is 1 gram each jar. You can see the sizing in the photo below which I compared the size with Burt’s Bees Lip shimmer.

1st order: Sample Kit, trial & errorcomparing EM sample size

It was pretty tricky and time-consuming to choose the base/foundation because they have around 24 shades in Warm, Golden, Cool, Olive, Buff, Cool or generally: Cool, Warm, Golden, Olive and Neutral undertones. One has to know her undertones pretty well to be able to spot which is which. However, with the affordable shipping and free sample kits, you can always order your 2nd or 3rd sample kits to spot your perfect shades. I am in the light shades of Bare Escentuals and I ended up getting Beige-Sunkissed Fair, Olive-Light Olive, and Golden-Fawn. You can also choose the finish or coverage you want which are: Original Glo, Semi-Matte, Matte, and Intensive. Original Glo – gives you the shiny-glowing-dewy finish perfect for dry skin and with light coverage.  Matte, of course is perfect for the oily skin. Semi-matte is a combination of matte and original glo.  Intensive has full coverage which is perfect for parties and evening affairs (in my opinion). Knowing the type of my skin, which is a combination of more dryness on the cheeks part and a bit of oiliness in the T-zone and the finish I want to achieve, which is the dewy-almost natural look. I ordered the 3 base in Original Glo and Semi Matte. I was lucky enough to get my perfect shades instantly on my 1st order of sample kit: Olive-Light Olive and Beige-Sunkissed Fair. The Fawn was too white for my pinkish and yellowish undertones. As for the concealer, I ordered the Intensive Concealer Fair. Blush was in Walkee Talkee shade which is a popular choice among make-up forums.

(by the way, read the description VERY WELL and the site’s FAQ on foundation shades because you’d pretty much get the needed information before deciding which base to get for your face)

I instantly love the base coverage because it was very light and it not only gave me a dewy-glowing look but it made my skin looks very healthy and luminous. I got compliments because some people never really thought I was wearing something on my face.  That was how close it resembles my skin color. It was also long-wearing, I almost do not need to retouch the whole day, 6-8hours.  But, the best reason why I love it and was convinced to order big sizes was the fact that it did not give me any skin dryness, breakouts not even irritation or red bumps which I usually get when a certain make-up brand is not for my skin type.

P1010011 (2)P1010044P1010063

I was convinced to order my Personal custom kit a couple of days after but I also wanted to try some tan, yellow-butter base shades and other concealers plus of course, blush shades which is part of the sample kit.  The Intensive Fair concealer was pretty okay, but not really enough to cover my dark under eye-circles, you can apply it dry or wet. The Walkee Talkee blush was perfect and I am more than convinced to order the big size.

(to be continued…off to check on this Super Cissus site first for a friend)

xoxo

Category: Everyday Minerals, conceal the mark, foundation/base, the pro artist, tricks of the trade  Tags: ,  5 Comments