Thursday, May 19, 2011

Fill in your Brows!

     The other day I went on a trip to Sephora to pick up a brow pencil. I’ve been using a MAC duo brow shader in Ivoire/Walnut for the past couple of years now (which I love) but realized that I’m not always going to have a brow brush on me so the powder would be useless to me in times of need. Pencil to the rescue! At least that’s the hope anyways.

     Anastasia has the original and ever-so-popular “Perfect Brow Pencil” and a new product called the “Brow Wiz”. The Brow Pencil is a standard pencil shader with a spooly brush on the other end. What makes the Anastasia pencil so different from other brow pencils is the product itself (DUH!).


     There are many of you who, like me, have fallen victim to crazy exaggerated brow lines that you get from most brow pencils. This is because with most brow pencils, the deep rich colours will transfer onto your skin heavily even if you used a light hand. This usually leads to holy-shanani-BROWS! Or brushier-than-thou’s etc etc... With the Anastasia one, the perfect amount of colour is transferred onto your skin. The firmer you press, the more colour you get. The formula of this product generally gives you that feathery effect so that your brows look naturally shaped & beautiful.


     I tested various colours on the back of my hand and trust me, it takes a while for the tip to warm-up and give off heavy colour. The pencil tip is not rough, even when sharpened to a point. It’s “velvety-smooth” texture feels good against the skin and when used with the built-in brow brush, it creates the perfect natural looking brow.



     While both formulas were made basically the same, I much prefer the Brow Wiz over the Brow Pencil solely because of the packaging. Some people think that the formula is what’s making this product better they’re different from each other (pencil vs. Crayon) so it’s pretty hard to say. This product has a waxy-crayon texture as opposed to pencil which naturally gives it a slightly firmer lead that resists easy-breakage. It works just like a mechanical pencil: you can twist it to expose more of the tip/lead/crayon or to close it away. This helps to save product and it never needs sharpening (travel life-saver!). With pencils, I find that if you forget to sharpen and the tip is dull, you usually end up with blurry undefined smudges. Ew.


     It also has a built-in spooly brush on the other end which helps to blend the product into the natural brows. The tiny tip allows for tiny natural looking strokes which is ideal for filling in sparse brows. I know there are a lot of ladies who LOVE to completely draw in their brows...... I personally find it tacky looking because it’s so in-your-face-fake. That’s why I like this product because it helps give me the ultimate natural look without looking overly done. My brows are sparse and light too, don’t get me wrong, but IDK I guess I don’t want people to freak out if a water-rollercoaster washes away one of my brows (EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH????) LOL Naw, this product hasn’t rubbed off on me yet and I’ve been wearing it for over 8 hours. So far I believe it to be sweat proof and rain proof. (Take that watercoaster!) For reference, I use Medium Ash which is a taupey-brown colour. It works well with those who have dark hair all the way up to light blondes. It really all depends on how you like your brows I guess.

Tuesday, May 03, 2011

Shade Yourself Beautiful

     I’m pretty much a very lazy person. I don’t like to go out as much as I used to because it requires me to put on makeup... and once I get started, I always find a reason why I can’t just walk out with only eyeliner or mascara; I always find a reason as to why I also need this on or that on. It quickly becomes a full face of makeup T^T If people were to see me on the street its either barefaced-look-like-the-walking-dead-day or everything-I-can-think-of-minus-eyeshadow-on-my-face-day. LOL. But no honestly, ever since I gained weight I can NOT live without the power of my sculpt/highlight powder!!! (Kim Kardashian def. made this her signature look... that and her nude lips)

     The purpose of contouring and highlighting is to create an optical illusion; it’s an attempt to create a more “ideal” oval-shaped face. I could write pages after pages about the different face shapes and how to correct them but honestly, that would take too long to write and I highly doubt anyone would read it all. Here’s a sketch my kid sister helped me with (that I used as part of my Book of Looks for makeup class *yeye*) that I will share with you all. If you don’t know what face shape you have, look in the mirror and outline your face with a lipstick (or washable marker) to help determine your shape.
**Curved lines means swirly circle blush on the cheek apples whereas the straight lines means to extend the blush towards the temples ;)



     I naturally have an oval-shaped face but ever since getting sick and gaining weight over the years, my face is now ROUND *smacks self in the face* Highlighting will help accentuate and bring features forward whereas contouring will help sculpt and minimize features (because darker shades will help recede any unwanted features).

     I know a lot of people use bronzers to contour their face but I personally haven't found any favourable bronzer. The majority of them are much too shimmery for my liking (who the hell ever heard of shimmering shadows? Please. This isn't a sparkley vampire whack sitatuation here...) My HG so far is the MAC Sculpt and Shape Duos which came out in 4 different combination compacts. The colour I bought was the Sculpt & Accentuate duo-powder that came out in 2007 (if I remember correctly). This is my baby. It never leaves my side. Anyone who would dare try to pry it from my hands will die. >:T



Bone beige/Emphasize: Palest cream & Tan
Accentuate/Sculpt: Pale blushed beige & Soft taupe brown

Lightsweep/Shadester: Soft peachy beige & Mid-tone leathery brown
Warm light/Definitive: Clean peach/Mid-tone reddish brown
     I foolishly only bought one back-up of this product and balled my eyes out when they discontinued this product. For MAC Pro members they have a variety of shape & sculpt colours but I wasn’t qualified for their membership at the time. Anyways, in 2009 they launched a line called D-Squared which had the exact duo-powder! Different packaging, exact same product. I was SO relieved, I bought lots of back-ups :D



Now that I’m eligible for the MAC Pro membership as a Makeup Artist, I can get a full-sized sculpting powder compact for when I hit pan with my duo. Sweeeeeeeeeeeet~