Art and shiny things…
Guys, I finally launched a beauty/lifestyle/style blog!
Most recent article I just finished writing is: best facial cleansers for all skin types, featuring Fresh, Innisfree, and more! I’ve also discussed the benefits of and how to use rosehip oil recently, and will be reviewing a Soap & Glory highlighter tomorrow.
Check it out and follow me 🙂
I wrote a tutorial for TasteTablet on a 5-minute glowing summer makeup routine – check it out!
Summer isn’t any time to spend an hour indoors doing your makeup – not with the siren call of hiking trails, beach waves, summer parties and more calling your name. Instead, it’s a time for a quick makeup routine that will leave you with glowing summer skin in five minutes before you head out the door. Let’s get started!
1. L’Oreal Magic Lumi Light Infusing Primer. Apply this all over your face with your fingers. This is a dream under makeup – applies incredibly smoothly and sinks into the skin immediately. It adds extra radiance and keeps your makeup in place wonderfully. Add a little extra at points you want to highlight and it will give extra dewiness.
2. Maybelline Dream Lumi Touch Highlighting Concealer is widely considered a dupe for the high-end YSL Touche Éclat concealer. It’s silky and easy to apply but with good coverage, and definitely lightens and brightens the undereye area, possessing both concealer and highlighter qualities.
 (photo credit Essiebutton, one of my favorite makeup vloggers)
In my opinion, the only things you actually need as far as makeup goes are blush, lipstick,and concealer. Start there and you’ll be more than fine; you’ve added color to your cheeks and lips and covered up the most obvious problem for most women, which is under-eye shadow.Â
Beyond that, here’s a whole host of other things, and it occurred to me today to sit down and actually make a list of the products for different parts of the face that contribute to a full makeup “look”. It’s bewildering for makeup newbies, all the references to what may seem like dozens of products – which do you actually need? What’s the full lineup?
Makeup Brands I love: NARS, theBalm, Revlon
Drugstore fallbacks – Maybelline, Covergirl, and Hard Candy
Hair: Aveda, Bumble & Bumble, Aloxxi, L’Oreal
Drugstore fallbacks- Nexxus, TREsemme, and Herbal Essences
Skincare: C Booth, Fresh, Nivea
Skincare Routine for Dry Acne-prone Skin
Masks
–Michael Todd’s Pumpkin Nutrient-Rich Facial Mask
–Origins Clear Improvement Active Charcoal Facial Mask
BB/CC Cream
–Juice Stem Cellular Repair CC Cream
Moisturizer
Korres Wild Rose Brightening Facial Cream
Body Lotion
–Catch-all Review: Aveeno Active Naturals Daily Moisturizing Lotion, Jergen’s Ultra Healing, Jergen’s Ultra Healing review, Nivea Essentially Enriched Lotion, Nivea Intensive Body Lotion, and Yes to Carrots Super Rich Body Butter
Primer: Hard Candy Sheer Envy Primer, available at any drugstore
Blush: NARS Orgasm Blush. The raves are true and more. If I could buy only one beauty product ever until the end of time, this would be it. Backup: theBalm® cosmetics Hot Mama Shadow & Blush All-in-One, $20.00.
Eyeliner: CoverGirl Perfect Point Plus (any shade) – stays on for hours, doesn’t run at all, and offers complete control with its precision point. Glides on with a smooth, soft application. I’ve tried some other eyeliners and always return to this one.
Lipstick: Revlon Outlast
Lip Pencil:Â NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Dragon Girl
Lip Balm: Vaseline or Smith’s Rosebud Salve (available at Anthropologie)
Tinted Moisturizer:  I swear by Merle Norman Sheer Defense Tinted Moisturizer. Gives my face a lovely, natural sun-kissed glow, doesn’t irritate my sensitive skin, and blends in well and easily. It even has a light, pleasant smell. I can’t recommend enough – love it. Merle Norman stuff is hard to find so I recommend calling their store and having them ship it to you – they’re always up for that. Backup: Joeur Luminizing Moisturizer- Gives me that perfect warm all-over but natural looking summery glow, blends in at the swipe of fingers, no strong smell or streaking, washes off easily – holy grail product. Subtle enough to wear all year round, effective enough to want to. Backup: on days that I need some extra glow,
Picked up this combination lipstick/lip color at Sephora. It was actually my first lip pencil so I wanted to choose carefully, and went with this partly because of rave reviews from beauty bloggers, and partly because NARS is a brand that I trust (the Orgasm blush? It’s been said a thousand times already, but it’s an absolute must for any beauty collection).
 Juice Beauty Stem Cellular Repair CC Cream – Warm Glow,  $39
This came a few weeks back in my Birchbox, and was one of the last products I got around to trying out, not because I had negative expectations (I had none) but simply because it is very tough for any skincare/foundation product to beat out my two beauties, Luxiva Tinted Moisturizer and Aveeno Tinted Moisturizer. It’s described on the Juice website as a “12-in-1 color correcting cream for glowing, radiant, ageless skin,” and is an organic product.
Application: Coming out of the tube as a tan-colored cream, as one might expect, the Repair Cream blends on well and easily, no neon tones like the Pixi Primer(shudder).
I got a sample of this in my most recent Target beauty bag (I highly recommend following Target’s Facebook because they give out free beauty bags once a season – around 4 times a year – but they go quickly so the best way to get them is to get advance notification through the Facebook page). Pixi Beauty Primer No.1 Even Skin retails at an astounding $29.00 at Target/online.
The description says,”Truly luxurious skin illuminating face primer to correct uneven skintone, restore skin’s youthful glow and balance skin hydration. Packed with anti-aging Vitamin A and skin-protecting Vitamin E.”
Well – it certainly illuminates – a little too well. It gave my face a quite alarming glow, in fact, to the point that my skin looked almost oily. It went on easily and I was able to rub it into my skin, but it’s simply too bright – it gave my face an unnatural all-over pink flush, unlike any other primer I’ve ever tried. I have fair skin, but not extremely fair, so I can’t imagine what it would do to someone with pale skin. Having said that, it does give a glow, stayed on fairly well and didn’t dry out my skin, so if you have tanned or dark skin, I would recommend trying this – it may be exactly what you’re looking for. As for me, however, I’m going to stay far far away – and I recommend anyone with fair skin doing the same unless you want to look faintly intoxicated.
Verdict:Â Lose it.
What you’re left with is a funny film that never gets really funny. It’s fine, but not thrilling, the film version of eating at Chili’s. – FSR on “We’re the Millers”
Gratified to see that there’s a reason I don’t like Jonathan Franzen – “I think she was surprised that I wasn’t moaning with shock and pleasure,” Jonathan Franzen says of his phone call with Oprah Winfrey in Boris Kachka’s Hothouse, recently excerpted at Slate. “I’d been working nine years on the book and FSG had spent a year trying to make a best-seller of it. It was our thing. She was an interloper, coming late, and with an expectation of slavish gratitude and devotion for the favor she was bestowing.” -A Handy Guide to Why Jonathan Franzen Pisses You Off, RT Flavorwire
“Creativity requires giving myself away. It involves nicking an artery somewhere and seeing what bleeds out, then using what’s there constructively and thoughtfully. In this way, creation is the very opposite of consumption; it’s a generous outward motion. There is no greed in it. It’s communication, born of a desire to participate in and engage with the world, instead of merely absorbing it.” – RT Lawless Gentile
Birchbox presents an incredibly helpful guide explaining what BB cream, CC cream, and the like are – “Unlike lipstick, which is meant to be seen, base makeup is supposed to be your invisible ally, masking imperfections, evening out skin tone, and creating a perfect canvas for the rest of your makeup—without anyone knowing it’s actually there. Since that’s easier said than done, we’ve created a coverage guide to help you choose which formula is right for you.”  –The Base Makeup Coverage
Woot! No words to describe this awesome. “Good news for people who like to watch people other than white men host their evening news programs: PBS has grabbed Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff to co-host NewsHour, the channel’s long-running nightly news program. According to PBS, “This will mark the first time a network broadcast has had a female co-anchor team.” Bonus diversity points because one of them isn’t white!” – RT Jezebel
Coffee and Irony 