Guess what?! That youtube channel is FINALLY here! Alexandra Missretro! First video is right here for your enjoyment:
Hey guys, this week I had something a little different planned out and I was going to post a video tutorial, however I just discovered that for some reason Weebly will not allow me to post a video unless I upgrade (grr). This won't be today's blog post, don't worry, I'll figure it out! Just an FYI!
First off, apologies to my viewers about last week, I got incredibly busy last Monday and by the time I realized I hadn't done a post, it was late and I didn't have anything to review. On that note, I won't be able to post next week either unfortunately. Secondly, the format of my blog posts will be a little different from now on seeing as Weebly (the blog/website engine I use) has changed their format and the former formatting feature I liked isn't available anymore. However, this change to Weebly does have a few advantages as I can now customize the format. If any of you want to, I would love some feedback about formatting for ideas!
And now, for the part the people came to see! This week's review is on a Wet n' wild product. Yet again, as far as drugstore products go, Wet n' wild is one of the cheaper brands, however they do provide some great products from what I hear and I want to look into their line further. Seeing as summer is coming around, bringing warm weather with it, I decided to get myself a waterproof liquid eyeliner. I was looking around, and stumbled on the H2O proof liquid liner by Wet n' wild. It was cheap, so I decided to give it a shot. I have to admit, I'm not super impressed by this eyeliner. It works and it stays longer than a regular liquid liner, I'll give it that much. When it comes to staying power, this eyeliner is pretty impressive, I was able to rub as much as I wanted and it didn't budge, but by the end of the day, it was starting to flake off and it didn't look at all as good as when I applied it. Yes, I know, most of the time that's to be expected if you put it on early and wear it all day long, but I mean, it was flaking a lot more than usual, and it was actually a little bit faded in places. The second test was just how "H2O proof" this liquid liner really was, and this time, I was pleasantly surprised. I had to drench the eyeliner under running water and smudge the heck out of it with my finger before it even started to get fuzzy edges. Impressive? I think so. Next up is how well this sucker comes off, which was actually a disappointment. I had to rub pretty hard with my best makeup remover and a cotton bud before it came off, and once it did, it came off in these odd little flakes. As far as removing goes, it's not as easy as it should be. At all. It comes off when you want it to stay, and stays when you want it off! Well, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration. Finally is application. The applicator on this eyeliner is really good, it's a little fatter than what you might find on some felt tipped applicators, however it's really nicely pointed on the end of the nib and it doesn't flop about like some, which I like and it makes application very easy. The cap and handle on this product is also great during application, as it is long and comfortable to hold. Finally, the pros and cons of this product: pros: affordable product is richly pigmented application is easy cons: doesn't stay put as well as it should (flaky) is difficult to remove As I come to the end of the review, despite some of the great things about this product in application and pigmentation, the actual cosmetic itself and it's quality is what matters, so I'd have to say this isn't a product I would recommend due to it's couple of faults. There may only be a couple, however they are pretty major factors in the quality of this cosmetic. This past week I picked up an elf cream liner in coffee. I was pretty excited to see if I would like this better than a similar product I got from NYX which is about twice as much and I'm pretty sure has less in the container, and you know me, if I can get something just as good or better for less, I'm all for it! Trying this product out was exciting since I love elf, and haven't been able to find it anywhere where I live until now. Their cream eyeliners are three to four dollars, so very affordable, and they come with a small, angled liner brush that in my opinion, works very well for doing winged eyeliner. elf carries their cream liners in eleven different colors, though in stores I've only been able to find black and brown, though I'm sure some places do carry the other colors. The eyeliner has a rich texture, as well as being very well pigmented. When I applied the cream liner, it was smooth and glided on easily, without my needing to apply an extra layer, and it also set very quickly. I wore it all day without it running, smudging, or fading, and that's impressive during allergies season when my eyes are prone to watering and I tend to rub them from time to time. During the smudge test, I found once it's completely set it does smudge a little bit, but it takes a lot more force on my hand than I could really apply to my eye area. While as far as I can tell, elf doesn't claim that this product is waterproof, when I held it under running warm water and then tried to smudge it, it didn't budge. I had to rub a tissue over it to get it to start coming off. Most non-waterproof products I find don't have this kind of staying power, so naturally I was impressed. When it comes to removal, the eyeliner does come off fairly easily with makeup remover and a cotton pad without too much abrasion, which is nice for people like me with sensitive skin. here are the things it has going for it: It's affordable doesn't budge whether it's being rubbed or soaked it's pigmented has a rich consistency applies smoothly is waterproof, even though it doesn't claim to be and it comes with it's own little brush! comes in a wide variety of colors The cons: elf isn't carried in several of the common drugstores (at least as far as I can tell) (hm, maybe I should have said "the con" hahaha) This is a good quality product, and just in case you were wondering, yes, I did like it better than the one from NYX! As always, if you want me to try a product or have me try something, leave a comment or go to the contact section of my blog and I'll try to get back to you about it, and test the product if possible! We've all seen someone walking around with mismatched foundation, whether it's at the mall, the grocery store, or whatever. Sometimes it's just a minor thing like a shade too dark or a shade too light, but there are cases where there's a perfectly obvious line right under the chin and the foundation is clearly the wrong color all around. Yes, we've all either seen these people, or even worse, it's been us! Today I'm going to talk about getting the perfect shade of foundation for your skin.
The first thing you should do is before you go shopping for new foundation, whether it be at a drug store, or at a place like Sephora where they do the matching for you, you should take a good look in the mirror. A lot of times the rule of thumb is to test a bit of the foundation out on the back of your hand and see what it looks like. The problem with this is if you put your hand up to your face, most of the time it isn't going to be the same color as your face. For me, my hand is close, so I can kind of get away with it, but at the same time, it's just a little too dark. I can guarantee you, if you put your own hand to your face, it'll be either too light, or too dark, even if it's just a minor difference. So what do you do if not test it on your hand? Well, first things first, get to know your skin tone. Are you more olive? Are you fair? Are you somewhere in between? Figure it out. Stand in the mirror and look at your chest area, your neck, and your face. For most women, their faces are a little bit more red than their neck, and if you fake tan, or even naturally tan, your face will probably be a bit lighter than say your neck and chest because it gets more exfoliation. If you have redness in your face, it doesn't make sense to match that small amount of redness when you're purchasing foundation, especially if you have mostly yellow undertones. It also doesn't make sense to match to your face if it's lighter than the rest of your body because you tan. For these reasons, we look at the neck and chest. I've found when I do makeup on a client, the easiest way to find a perfect match is to look along that transition from the face and jaw, to the top of the neck, right in front of the ear. Depending on what the client will be wearing, sometimes I'll look at the coloring of the shoulders as well. Once you've gotten to know your skin tone, and you've figured out what to match yourself to, it's time to do the foundation shopping. If you plan on going to a high end company, or a place like Sephora where they match you themselves, be skeptical. They can make mistakes too, if you feel the color isn't quite right, ask to be matched again. Foundation if not done right can look absolutely ridiculous, so it's important that it's a good match for you. If you go to a drug store where you're pretty much on your own, don't stick to one brand, try a few brands, and even do some research first, find out what brands are best loved and which ones are less loved, watch and read reviews before you go shopping. Once you have an idea of what you want to try, use testers. In some cases there won't be an available tester, which means that sadly, you're stuck to matching through the bottle. Take a mirror with you and maybe some makeup wipes, since sometimes drug stores won't actually have any available, and test the foundation out on that special spot in front of your ear. If you're stuck to matching through the bottle, then hold it up to your face. Also, ask if you can get samples and if you can't, make sure you can bring the foundation back if it doesn't work. If you can't get samples or return the foundation if it doesn't work, find another place to buy foundation from. If you get a foundation that doesn't work because you couldn't sample it or return it, you've wasted your money. Hopefully this was helpful and gives you a few ideas. I suggest also looking at Lisa Eldridge on youtube, she's done a whole series on foundation matching and it's really fantastic. A lot of the methods for matching you see here are derived from her, so get back to the source! As always, please follow my blog, there are posts every Monday, and if you ever want me to Red lips are classic, beautiful, glamorous, and they're a great way for anyone to feel a little more alive on one of those drab, blah kind of days, or even just everyday. I personally love red lipstick and I wear it all the time, I go through phases with it, sometimes I wear it every day, other times I wear it less, either way, it's a beautiful color and it looks great on everyone, whether you want to go dark and bold for an evening out, wear it bright and lively for a lunch date, or even wear it just because. The problem most people have with red lips is they either don't feel confident enough to wear it, or they don't know how to wear it. It is true that red lips are a little more high maintenance than a nude or a pink, but they're well worth the extra work. Red lipstick is known for feathering and bleeding, or just highlighting any little crack in your lips, which is one of the reasons so many people I talk to don't want to wear it, and don't want to wear those long lasting formulas that leave your lips feeling like plastic. Little do they know, there are several methods to avoid those plastic like lipsticks and that nasty feathering. The first thing I should say is that before you wear any kind of bold lipstick, make sure your lips are exfoliated of any dead skin and are very well moisturized. Try to avoid using ordinary chap sticks because these actually can cause more damage. The reason is that chap sticks tend to lock out the moisture, so you just have to keep reapplying and your lips really don't end up any more moisturized. And I know some of you chap stick lovers out there will want to argue, but don't. Trust me on this, stop buying el-cheapo chap sticks and your lips will feel much better. The better alternatives are to either spend a little extra and get something like a Burt's Bees lip balm (which those things work wonders), or to exfoliate your lips regularly and apply Vaseline. The latter is my favorite. The first method to avoid bleeding lipstick is the one I use all the time with non long lasting lipsticks. I apply with a lip brush (not only does this help with the feathering, but it also gives you more accuracy) and then take a tissue and blot my lips. Some people will blot and then reapply, whatever works best for you, but I just blot. The second method is to apply a bit of your foundation or liquid concealer to your lips and then apply the lipstick over top. I used to do this all the time and I find it works very well, however I have noticed that sometimes the foundation or concealer will mix into the lipstick as you apply the lipstick and you end up needing to apply more, but not always. An optional step is to apply concealer around the lips after putting on the lipstick using a clean lip brush. Thirdly, you can put on the lipstick, then take one ply of tissue (separate the tissue so you only have one half of the thickness) and then take any kind of translucent or pressed powder on a small blush brush, put the ply of tissue over your lips, and then powder over the tissue. You can also pair up this method with the foundation method, or the next method. The final method I know of is probably the most well known, and this is to use lip liner. Lip liners can be tricky, due to the fact that it is close to impossible to find one in the exact shade of your lipstick. A way to combat this so the lip liner doesn't influence the color of your lipstick, is to use a clear lip liner, however if you can't find a clear lip liner or only have an ordinary liner around, fill your entire lip in, don't just outline your lips. There are two reasons for this, one, so you don't have a ring around your lips that is a different shade, and secondly, if your lipstick wears off, you'll be left with a rather impressive line around your lips. So fill your whole lip in with the liner, then apply the lipstick. Additionally, you can blot, or apply the powder method. That's it for this post, but I will post a link to a video by Lisa Eldridge on finding the right lipstick for you below. As always, if you have a request for me to review a product, or you have questions about something makeup related, please leave a comment and I'll see what I can do! First off, I'd like to apologize to my viewers. The last two weeks I've been busy and wasn't able to do any blog posts and I almost forgot about it today, so this was an emergency thing I slapped together! Most of the time when any of us girls go to purchase a lipstick, the automatic reaction is to go for the more expensive brands because they're supposed to be high quality, and hope we might be able to catch a sale or discount. I don't know about you, but I don't like spending a lot on a single tube of lipstick, and since I like to be a bit frugal and save up, I'm not about to spend $25 bucks on a single lipstick. I question it when I spend ten dollars on one lipstick! The natural expectation when we spend that much is that the product we are purchasing is higher quality than anything we could purchase from the inexpensive brands, and a majority of the time, they are better quality, but personally, if I can get something that's just as good as a MAC lipstick or Clinique, Makeup Forever, anything like that, for less, I'd go for that every time. I want this blog to be a way for you ladies out there to save some money on makeup products. Recently I was shopping at Target, and I went past the NYC shelves (a great drugstore brand for those of us who don't-or can't-spend much on cosmetics) and I saw on the first shelf was their new lipstick line. I'd been seeing these at Walmart too and had been considering giving them a try. The NYC expert last lipstick line has an attractive array of lipsticks, varying from light pinks and nudes, to reds, to chocolate browns. The lipsticks are about two dollars each, so I got four for what I would usually have to spend on one lipstick. Most of the colors in the line seem to be matte shades, though there are a few shimmery ones. The question I had, despite all my excitement, was "Just how good are these?". My all time favorite red lipstick came from NYC, so I had high hopes, but I decided not to be surprised if they sucked, since they were so inexpensive. The colors I bought were Traffic Jam, Blue Rose, L<3ve My Latte, and Smooch. I was pleasantly surprised with these lipsticks. All of them have excellent pigmentation, and I mean, they. are. pigmented. One light swipe with the matte shades and I had perfectly opaque lipstick coverage, even some of my Mary Kay lipsticks can't accomplish that. The first week that I had them I loved them so much I didn't wear any of my other lipsticks, and lately, it's been getting pretty warm and muggy here. This was the perfect time to test just how "expert last" these were. Most of the time once I start sweating, my lipstick runs right off, and I'm always trying to blot it and reapply. Didn't happen with these, I never once had to reapply. Even better, most long lasting lipsticks feel like a plastic coating and are super drying, again, this didn't happen at all. My lips were no more chapped than usual. The one shimmery lipstick, love my l<3ve my latte, is a very sheer color, but I don't personally have too much of a problem with that in shimmer lip products. It's a nice one for layering over other lipsticks. My conclusion is that you really do not need to spend a lot of money to get a fabulous lipstick, these lipsticks prove that. They're affordable, are offered in a variety of attractive colors, and are high quality. If you want a good lipstick, check out the NYC Expert Last lip line, you won't be disappointed! We've all done it before, been applying an eyeshadow (usually your favorite too), but it slips out of your hand, falls to the floor, and leaves you heart broken when you find it shattered. Some of us might have even thrown it out, convinced there was no way to fix it, or possibly have tried to use it as a loose dust. Well no more! Instead of throwing away your broken eyeshadows, you can fix them! Here are the tools you'll need: Rubbing alchohol (or something like vodka will work too) Cuticle stick (or tooth pick if that's all you have to hand) A small pot (optional, but will make things much easier) A small dish Something fairly hard that will fit into the eyeshadow pan A scrap of fabric Broken eyeshadow (of course!) Before you start this, please make sure your hands and finger nails are very clean, if you don't do this, any germs or bacteria on your hands will get into the eyeshadow and then they'll go into your eyes every time you use the shadow. First things first, take your eyeshadow out of the pan and put it into the small pot. (Some people say you should do this in the eyeshadow pan, but I find it's just too difficult). Also, take an eyeshadow brush and brush as much of the left over dust out of the pan as you can, it might sound silly, but it's surprising how big a difference this makes. Taking the cuticle stick, break up the eyeshadow into a fine powder and eliminate as many clumps as possible. Take the rubbing alcohol (or vodka) and pour some into the cap, the reason for this is so you can avoid pouring too much liquid into the eyeshadow and making a mess. Mix the eyeshadow and the alcohol together until you have a paste and make sure you don't have a liquid, if it's turned to a liquid, you'll have to wait for some of the alcohol to evaporate so you can actually press the eyeshadow, if you press it while the eyeshadow is a liquid, it will only leave you with a big mess and a ruined eyeshadow. Take a tissue and clean out the eyeshadow pan, if you don't do this, the eyeshadow won't stick in the pan because of eyeshadow residue. Transfer the eyeshadow paste back into it's pan and spread it out with the cuticle stick to avoid air bubbles. If you get air bubbles in the bottom of the pan, the eyeshadow will just break all over again, and you don't really want that. Once you've spread the eyeshadow in the pan, take something like a coin, or anything that will fit into the eyeshadow pan, and wrap it tightly in the fabric scrap. (This has to be small enough to just fit inside, but large enough that when you press down on it, the eyeshadow paste doesn't splotch out everywhere.) Pour a bit of alcohol into the small dish and dip the cloth and coin (or whatever you find to use, just make sure you don't mind if it gets a little dirty and wet). Hold the fabric in the alcohol for a few seconds, this will kill any bacteria. Press the fabric wrapped object firmly onto the eyeshadow paste. Don't be afraid to really press down hard, nothing will go wrong unless you're afraid you might break the palette or pan. Your first try at this, you probably won't push down hard enough, or you'll press unevenly. That's okay, it gives you an idea of how to do it the next time. After this, clean up the sides of the pan and leave the eyeshadow to dry. The eyeshadow might smell a bit like rubbing alcohol for a day or so while it dries, but that's normal, the smell should dissipate after it dries. I hope this was helpful, if you have any questions, leave a comment and I will try to get back to you! Last week I reviewed the Hard Candy "mod quad" in brownie points and concluded that it was a decent palette and worth buying. This week I'm doing the second part to that review and looking at the smoke and mirrors mod quad. This one, unlike brownie points, is a set of blacks and greys, though they're really more like silvers than greys. Before reading this review, I suggest you read the first part, which will be below this post. But just to refresh your brain, baked eyeshadows can be applied wet and dry, dry it's more like an ordinary shadow, but metallic. Wet, baked eyeshadows are much more vibrant and stunning in the sense that they have a foiled effect, taking the metallic looks to a new level. I recently got to give these shadows the ultimate test, would they hold up or not? I wore three of the four colors here while I was volunteering as a waitress for a fundraising banquet. I would be running about all night in a room packed chalk full of people, meaning the place would get hot very quickly meanwhile I'd be running back and forth, getting drinks for people, carrying plates and trays, the works. I was surprised to find that all of them held up well. Okay, I'll be honest, I'm not as impressed with the smoke and mirrors palette as I was with brownie points. Starting with the white, this one is a very cool toned white. The whole palette is pretty much all cool tones, but this one is a very cold, snow white. Overall, this is an extremely sheer eyeshadow. I find I have to apply it with my fingers for it to register, which I don't like doing because I have a tendency to drag on my skin a lot with my fingers. Dry, I definitely have to apply this color with my fingers. Wet, it shows up better, but it's still quite sheer so I do have to pack it on more than I would really like. The second color I actually really like. This one is a silvery shade and decently pigmented. Dry, it's quite interesting, it looks sort of like silver dust, but I honestly prefer this one wet. It shows much better and I love the effect. It looks like silver leaf has been applied to my eyelids! While with brownie points I didn't particularly like the second shade, this one is for sure a favorite on this palette. The next color is a little bit darker and more of a platinum. Dry, this one is a little bit more grungy than I really like if it's applied lightly, so I find I need to apply a little more than I usually would. Wet, this one is spectacular. It has a bluish undertone to it and again, has that lovely foil look I love so much. Again, another favorite. Fairly pigmented, interesting tones, good color. If you totally want to change up a smoky eye, apply just a bit of this damp as an accent and it could do very well as an eyeshadow transformer as well as being great on it's own. The fourth and final color is a black, though it actually is more of a dark grey once applied. Sadly, this one is a bit on the sheer side, but that doesn't mean it isn't a cool color. Dry, I don't like it that much, it's kind of just like black and silver sparkles with a bit of a grey-black eyeshadow as a base, so unless you want that, definitely apply this one wet. Similar to the dark brown from brownie points, the base of this shadow isn't quite as metallic as the other colors, but it has a lot of sparkle to it, which means you do end up with an interesting effect, so while I wouldn't really wear this as the majority of a look, it does make a nice accent tone. Again, this palette has quite simple snake skin print packaging (print meaning it isn't real snake skin. If it were, you wouldn't be paying six bucks for it). Rather than being brown though, this one is black. Again, not my personal style, but I'm sure some people really do like that. The case has a small mirror and four sponges inside. While I admit smoke and mirrors didn't wow me as much as brownie points, I still like it for dramatic evening looks or just to add some pizazz to something simple. Hard Candy carries their mod quads in three other themes as well. A pink, a purple, and a green. While these themes wouldn't work on me due to my skin tone, and my eye color, these could do very well on someone else, it just depends on your skin tone and eye color. The things it has going for it: Interesting colors affordable okay pigmentation, with the exception of the white cruelty free, they don't test on animals attractive packaging (depending on your taste) While I wasn't wowed by the smoke and mirrors palette, it's still a good one and worth getting. As always, there are new posts every Monday and if you want me to try out a product, let me know in the comments and I will try to test it! (P.S. I started using a way better camera for my photos, so the picture quality should improve from now on :D) Recently I discovered the Hard Candy baked eyeshadows. For those of you who have never heard of this, you're probably thinking "Baked eyeshadow? What is that?!". I had the same reaction, so I decided to try the stuff and see what I thought, as well as look up just what makes these eyeshadows "baked". In my research, I found that these eyeshadows are made of mineral pigment shadows and then baked into cute little domes (hence the baked). The baking process eliminates the moisture and leaves you with beautiful shimmers, as opposed to regular eyeshadow, which just has individual sparkles added. These little beauties can be applied wet and dry. Dry gives you a gorgeous, soft metallic effect. Applied wet, the shadows give you an amazing foiled effect that's intense and stunning, or at least, so legend has it. Obviously with Hard Candy being a drug store brand that you can get at any Walmart or cosmetic's counter at the nearest drug store, these aren't as high quality as ones you could buy from companies like Sephora or MUA, but I decided I'd give it a try. I bought the "brownie points" palette. The white on this palette is a little sheer for my taste and I find even with a primer, I really have to pack it on. Not the way I like to wear my eyeshadow! None the less, it's still a lovely color. Wet, it's still pretty sheer, but the color is intensified and looks much better, so if you really want the white to stand out, apply it wet. I'm not sure what to call the color of the second shadow, it's kind of a grey-beige shade. Dry, this one has quite a neutral look to it and on me, it adds a little shimmer to my eye area, but there really isn't much to say about it. Wet, it has a lovely foil look. Personally I prefer it wet to dry as it intensifies the color and adds a little more pop to it. If you want something a little more understated for fair skin, this is the way to go. The third color is my favorite. It's a gorgeous, well pigmented copper. It isn't a particularly sparkly shadow, but it is very metallic once applied. Dry, it's an absolutely beautiful color just by itself, added in with the others it really makes a statement. When applied wet, it's even better. It's metallic coloring is intensified to the point where it's almost like thin foil on your eyes! I think this one is by far, my favorite eyeshadow. Out of all the eyeshadows I have ever owned, this is my all time favorite. Hard Candy, you did a good job! Finally, is the chocolate brown. This one is a little different from the others, rather than just being metallic, it has a little bit of sparkle added in. Applied dry, it's quite simple and I personally like it best as a crease color for every day wear. Wet, the sparkles really stand out against the metallic base. For every day, it's really too much wet, but it would be perfect for a dramatic evening look. While it isn't exactly my favorite, I do like it very much. As far as packaging goes, Hard Candy usually does try and make a statement by covering their palettes in lace or colored satin, glitter, or something like that. The packaging for this one is fairly simple, with a snake skin pattern border. While this isn't really my thing, Some people would probably quite like that, and I do appreciate the effort to make their products stand out. Inside it comes with four sponges, one for each color, however I haven't tested them, seeing as how much I really dislike sponges. I never really use them and they frequently end up in the garbage. There's also a small mirror, just big enough to do your eye makeup when you're rushed, or just need to touch up. On the back, there's also a guide of how they suggest to wear the products, a very good addition for someone new to makeup. Personally, I tweaked it a bit, but the guide does suggest a quite flattering makeup style. This palette has a lot going for it, seeing as how the colors are all stunning in their own ways and are very versatile. You can use them for both every day (like I have been) and you can adapt them for more dramatic evening wear. If you're getting more serious about makeup and planning to wear it every day and don't want to spend a lot, are buying makeup as a gift, or just want something inexpensive for every day, this is the way to go. I would highly recommend this product for anyone. Hard Candy has mod quads in five other themes as well. You can get them in neutral (brownie points), pink, purple, green, and black. While not all of these work for everyone's eye colors or skin tones, they do provide a variety. Hard Candy products are also cruelty free, so if that's important to you, these are a safe bet. The things it's got going for it: Affordable attractive packaging good colors Okay quality cruelty free, they don't test on animals decent selection for every skin type I think I'll probably try out the purple palette next, but as far as the brownie points mod quad goes, I like it and it will probably stay my every day makeup for a long time. As always, if you want me to test a product, let me know! |
AuthorAlexandra Archives
January 2015
Categories |