Tag: face of the day

Categories
Beauty

Face of the Day #4: The Prodigy Show FOTD.

When was the last time I put up one of these posts? October 2015, that’s when. I should do this more often.

I went to The Prodigy show the first Saturday of June. I’ll be riding that wave for the rest of the month for sure. Make-up wise, it was the perfect opportunity to break out my black lipstick.

Here’s what I wore:

face of the day flatlay

List of products:

Face & Base:

  • face primer: Inglot Mattifying Under Makeup Base
  • eye primer: Artdeco Pure Minerals Mineral Eyeshadow Base Sensitive
  • foundation: MAC Studio Fix Fluid SPF 15 in NW10 (really old post *shudder shudder*; update coming up)
  • concealer: only God knows 😀 I think it’s BeYu
  • undereye setting powder: e.l.f. High Definition Undereye Setting Powder
  • setting powder: AVON Mark. Magix HD Finishing Powder
  • blusher: Giordani Gold Bronzing Pearls Compact Heritage Edition in Natural Radiance 33167 (very mini-review on Insta)

I am slowly beginning to tame the MAC foundation – about damn time, considering I’ve had it for so long. Plus I’m nearing the end of my stash, and don’t really want to buy anything new until I go through all the old ones. It is quite a heavy base, though, so perhaps I would need to get something lighter for the dog days of summer.

A post shared by Alexandra (@alexandrabrovco) on

Giordani Gold Bronzing Pearls Compact in Natural Radiance I praised on my Instagram a while ago, and really want to write a full-feature post about it, but I’m having problems with photographing it on my face. It’s a really natural-looking blusher – the name Natural Radiance is very apt for this product – which makes it a really good starter blusher. You have to be really heavy-handed to overdo it.

Eyes & Brows

  • brows: Artdeco Eyebrow Powder in 2
  • eyeliner & shadow base: BeYu Color Biggie in 201
  • eyeshadow: Mac Eye Shadow x15 Cool Neutral Palette, shades Pick Me Up, French Clay, Pearled Earth, and Black Tied
  • mascara: Faberlic Express Volume Mascara 5556

I’ve been using Artdeco Eyebrow Powder nearly every day for a couple of months now, and I barely made a dip in the product. Granted, I don’t use a lot – just a touch of shading and shaping, but I’m still surprised. Artdeco eyebrow powders and eye shadows don’t have a lot of product in the pan (just 0.7 g/ 0.02 oz), but considering how long it’s taking me to even make a more or less visible dip, I suppose it’s fine.

BeYu Color Biggie in 201 was my holy grail pencil for waterline. It stayed put for almost the entire day, which is unprecedented for me. Unfortunately, this time it betrayed me, but I think it’s just the matter of age. BeYu Color Biggies are no longer imported here (huge mistake), so what I bought were testers from a local retailer. Otherwise they’re really good.

I have a couple of massive projects planned for MAC Eye Shadow x 15/ Cool Neutral. 😀 Below are close-ups of the shadows I used. I wasn’t going for anything fancy – just something dark and pronounced around the eye that was reasonably blended around the edges.

mac pearled earth closeup

MAC Pearled Earth went all over the lid.

mac black tied closeup

MAC Black Tied (ugh isn’t it gorgeous) went to the outer V and was also used as a under eye liner.

mack pick me up and french clay

MAC Pick Me Up (top left) and MAC French Clay (bottom right) were used for blending out and in the inner corner.

Lips:

  • liner: Oriflame The One Gel Eye Liner Pencil 32091
  • lipstick: Golden Rose Velvet Matte Lipstick in 33

I lined my lips with Oriflame The One Gel Eye Liner Pencil, thinking that the lipstick on its own might bleed outside the edges, but ultimately I think it was a mistake. Golden Rose Velvet Matte lipstick in the shade 33 looks better on its own. I filled my lips with the eyeliner as well, and where I did that, the lipstick appeared patchy.

I’m an office worker, and although I fully believe that black is a neutral colour both in makeup and clothes, the management is bound to disagree with me. (I also believe leopard print to be neutral, but that’s a story for another day…) Seeing as most of my days are spent in the office, I don’t think I’d get the opportunity to rock a black lip any time soon, but I will try wearing it on the weekend without the liner to see how it performs. Recently I bought several other lipsticks from this line, and want to write a detailed post about them as well.

End result:

black lipstick selfie

And from my Instagram on the day of the Prodigy show:

A post shared by Alexandra (@alexandrabrovco) on

Categories
Beauty

FOTD #3: Matte Skin, Grape Lips.

fotd 3

One of these days I’m going to find a flattering selfie angle, and actually share photos of the result. For now, lookie how I arrange them products on lined paper, eh. Eh, eh?!

Face:

  • Foundation – Oriflame Matte Control Foundation
  • Face Powder – IsaDora Perfect Loose Powder
  • Concealer – Bourjois 123 PERFECT CC EYE CREAM

A discontinued version of the Oriflame Matte foundation. I swear, Oriflame‘s been rebranding like there’s no tomorrow. It’s an OK foundation with medium coverage, but I’m just not sure. When it comes out of the tube, it’s a bit on the yellow/ grey side, which makes me all giddy inside. Yes, I said grey, and yes, giddy. But when you apply it and it oxidises a bit, it a) becomes about a tone darker than in the tube; b) loses all the yellowness and greyness and goes pink. And I do not need pink undertones in my face makeup, nuh uh.

Why am I suddenly accenting about every other word with italics?

Moving on.

The concealer I used for undereye only. I wish it were a lighter shade. It’s an OK concealer, but I don’t think I’d be repurchasing it.

Eyes:

  • Eyeshadow Primer – Artdeco pure minerals Mineral Eyeshadow Base Sensitive
  • Inglot AMC Shine 49
  • Oriflame The ONE Colour Impact Cream Eye Shadow Petroleum Shine 30748
  • Oriflame The One Colour Match Eye Shadow Duo in Brown 30970
  • Avon Hollywood quad
  • Mascara – Oriflame HyperStretch Mascara
  • Oriflame Eyelash Curlers

Inglot was used all over the lid. It’s one of my favourite eye shadows ever. The Colour Impact Cream Eye Shadow is beginning to dry around the edges a little bit, I need to use it more often. It doesn’t last particularly long on the lid, so that limits my ability to wear it, especially since it’s such a deep shade of green. The brown duo doesn’t last long as well, but it’s a pretty neutral shade, so I wear it more often. I used the lightest colour in the Avon Hollywood quad in the inner corners of my eyes.

In all honesty, the colours looked much better together in my head. It worked, but it wasn’t exactly what I was going for.

Brows:

  • Relouis pencil
  • Avon Hollywood quad

Now that I used the lightest shade in the quad for the brow bone (not like I haven’t before, but you know), I keep thinking that the matte brown might work for brows themselves. I’m one of those lucky people who don’t need a lot of filling in or drawing, but it’s still good to give a few strokes here and there just to even things out, especially if you’ve got a full face of makeup going on.

Lips:

  • Oriflame Lip Impact Deep Berry 26573

This is the discontinued version of the Oriflame lip crayons. They have since then released the new ones that you don’t have to sharpen (yay), but I’m not sure what they’ve done to the formula. I’m going to try one soon and report on that.

I was going to do a separate post for each and every crayon I own, because I just love lip crayons like I used to love the damn Crayolas when I was a kid. This is a deep grape colour that’s perfect for autumn.

Categories
Beauty

FOTD #2: Bold lips, muted lids.

face of the day 2

Products used:

  • Foundation: MAC Studio Fix Fluid NW10
  • Powder: IsaDora Perfect Loose Powder
  • Highlighter: Giordani Gold Opulent Night Pearls 27115
  • Concealer: Artdeco Mineral Fluid Concealer in 04
  • Eye shadow Primer: Artdeco Pure Minerals Mineral Eyeshadow Base Sensitive
  • Eye Shadow: AVON True Colour in Lace Hues
  • Brows: Relouis Eye Pencil in 02
  • Lipstick: L’Oreal Infallible Never Fail Lip Colour in Garnet 750
  • Mascara: Maybelline The Falsies Volum’ Express Flared Mascara

I’ve had this lipstick since ever. It’s expired by now, so I think I’m going to let it go during my next monthly clean-out. Or perhaps just place it in a separate compartment where I keep all my nostalgic purchases. It’s a good lipstick, but for it to work your lips need to be in very good condition. It will highlight every flake and every dry patch, and while the balm on top will soothe and smooth, it will not really affect the visual. For some reason I was under the impression that this product was discontinued, but it’s still available. As long as you don’t attack oily foods with abandon, it will last you for about 6 hours no problem, all while eating, drinking, talking, etc. with the lightest amount of caution. Word of warning, though — there’s no touching up this lipstick, only a complete reapplication.

The muted pink and blue in this quad are gorgeous, aren’t they? I love these colours so much. I went on a bit of a binge a few years ago and bought… six AVON eye shadow quads? They have since then rebranded the line and made the insides square, which diminished their obvious visual likeness to CHANEL. While I really like many of the colours — why would I buy them otherwise? — I am not at all impressed with the quality. The mattes are chalky, not easy to blend, nearly every single shadow is poorly pigmented, and all of them have excessive amounts of fall-out. Don’t expect them to last more than three hours without a primer either. With primer, they usually last about five, but begin to show signs of wear a bit earlier. Perhaps with the visual update came an update of the formula? I might want to find out a bit later, but for now I’ll be exploring other brands.

Something is to be said about using grey as eyebrow definer instead of brown. Brown can be very hard to match to your natural colouring. It’s either too red, or too coppery, or too dark, or too light. Most of the time it’s visible, especially in photographs. While grey is a true neutral colour. It’s non-colour, so defining your brows with grey works really well. There are only that many things to worry with grey — the desired lightness/ darkness and – a must – a matte finish. The aforementioned Artdeco make a great little grey eyeshadow that I really enjoyed using not only for its determined purpose, but also for brows and for slight contouring, especially of my rather prominent nose. I smashed the poor darling beyond all repair not long ago. It’s on my list of repurchases. I’ll be sure to write a review and swatch it once it’s done.

Try using grey for your brows, I’m pretty sure it’ll work.