It's a no makeup makeup look + pop of red lips!

Being in raincouver, it really does become a problem when you're trying to figure out with what to wear. Some days it may be blazing hot, and then it suddenly becomes winter weather pouring rain the next day. It makes your wardrobe so difficult, and when I leave the house I am not afraid to wear shorts on a sunny day, because it may start raining in the afternoon. I am also afraid of wearing a jacket on a rainy day because it may suddenly become like 30 degrees when it reaches the afternoon. What do I do!!!

I guess my solution has just become to wear light, and bring a cardigan. They're easy to carry, if it gets to hot, and when it's a little chilly, they'll keep me at least warm enough.
Today being a gloomy day, aka your typical Vancouver weather, I really wasn't in the mood to put on makeup. But, being a fashion student, and working in the cosmetics industry, it really isn't that easy to go out with my naked face anymore. Instead I decided to be trendy and do my no makeup makeup look ha! With, of course my favourite classic red lippy.

I've always loved Bite lipsticks, but the one I used for the first time (and love love loved!) is the exclusive one that only the one and only VIB Rouges from Sephora receive in their little congratulations kit. Obviously I've spent over $1000 in the last year... its only August ....what will happen to me in December???

Oh please excuse my beautiful roots, they will be touched up next Friday, and hopefully with an exciting new tone of blonde as well, yay :D 

So today, it literally took me about less than 10 minutes to do my makeup, and this is what I did.

1. SPF of course! Can't leave the house without that. Even when the days are yucky and cloudy, the sun still peaks through, and still damaging for our fragile skin. Especially that my skin has just been recovering lately from my acne outburst from the last few months. Read my post about how I treated my longly irritated and nasty acne here. Today I used my SPF 50 from Estee Lauder. It's super moisturizing and really nice for sensitive skins. It kind of has a bit of a green hint to it because cucumber is one of its ingredients, so it gives it a nice fresh smell instead of the yucky usual sunscreen smell. 

2. Next on the list, I applied my favourite Benefit Stay Flawless 15 hour wear primer that magnets your foundation or any complexion products right on to your face. It's perfect for that summer beach day where you don't want all your foundation to just sweat off. Even if you go to Asia, or those extremely humid locations for your vacay, you're going to want this primer to keep your makeup in tact. Even though Vancouver weather is pretty dry, I just like to have this on so that I don't have to keep touching it up throughout the day. I usually don't anyways... so if there is a product to prevent me from having to touch up my makeup, I need it! The plus size for buying it is also the extremely cute packaging that goes with Benefit's foundation collection. 

3. I don't have a picture of this one, because I actually took a sample of it home from Sephora. So always hearing all the rave about the Nars Sheer Glow foundation, I never cared to try it until now. I have to say, it really is an amazing foundation. It gives a light to medium coverage that is so natural, it really gives you that no makeup makeup kind of look. The consistency of the foundation is very liquidy, and doesn't give you the sticky feeling after you apply it at all. Of course, I like the healthy glow and dewy kind of finish, so the Sheer Glow line suited me well. If you're the type of person who doesn't like that nice shine, they have a second line of foundation called the Sheer Matte. Try that instead, you'll probably like that a lot better. The good thing is that even though it gives a matte finish, it won't dry out your skin, so don't worry about that!
I applied the foundation using Sephora's Pro Finish brush in #55. This brush gives your skin a nice airbrushed finish, and if you wanted a bit of a heavier finish, you can go ahead and use the classic flat foundation brush instead.

4. The Bite lipstick from the VIB Rouge packet is this cute little mini size! So for those who are not familiar with Bite products, they are absolutely phenomenal, and you should definitely try it if you are a lipstick lover, and haven't tried it yet. Why should you try it you ask! Well! I'll be glad to answer that curious question of yours. It is a completely natural and cruelty free lipstick that uses colours from natural fruits. In other words, its a lipstick that is healthy for you to eat. That's very important for a lipstick, because how much of the lipstick do you apply that ends up on your food or in your mouth when you lick your lips? Yupp, that's right, if the makeup product is something that you are constantly eating, you really want to find something that you can actually eat, and not just always swallowing a bunch of chemicals and artificial colours. Did I mention that they're super pigmented and last alllll day??

5. To add a bit of colour to my face, since I used a very bold lip colour, I don't want to leave out my cheeks, otherwise I'll look super flushed and sick and pale. Here, I'm using the blush and bronzer trio from Nars, I'm only using the Laguna Bronzer. It's a really nice and light milky brown that doesn't add too much definition to my fair skin. It has a tiny bit of shimmer, but is not so visible once you apply it on to your skin. 

To apply, I used the E.L.F slanted bronzer brush. I like using this one because it gives me a lot of control, as the shape of the brush goes perfectly along under my cheekbones. 

6. Lastly, I can't forget my eyebrows! I'll look like a zombie or something if I don't have them on, and people will run away from me if they see me.... Anyways, I'm using the Anastasia brow powder duo in the colour blonde. Most of Anastasia's brow products are either waterproof or are super longwear, so if you have no eyebrows or little eyebrows like me, I really recommend their eyebrow line, because they LITERALLY stay on all day. Unless you roll around in bed with your face in your pillow...then I guess you should use brown gel instead haha. 

So anyways, this is my final result, a nice natural school day kind of makeup that is appropriate for those lazy bums that want to add a bit of glamour to your day, but not having too much on. If you're someone who is used to having bold makeup, I dare you to try this! I believe that every girl should have a red lipstick as part of their accessories. 

Thank you for reading, and I hope wherever you are that it's not raining like Vancouver... unless you're here, then I guess you have to suffer with me... Bye!

-Carol

#nowplaying: City of Dreams - Alesso 

First review: Benefit's FAKE UP!

Good Evening Everyone!!

This week has just been exams and projects for me... so I'm super tired, and glad that I can finally sit down to have some of my own time. Actually, I really should be studying right now for another exam tomorrow.. but I've been working my butt off the last few days, I think I deserve some sort of a break (:

Anyways, the product I am going to be talking about today is... Benefit's new fake up!
Okay, so weeks before the product launch, people were always asking about them everyday! They have read about it online, on Benefit's website and all that. Even when they came into stores, they literally FLEW off the shelves like there was no tomorrow!

So what is FAKE UP you say?

It is a concealer and eye cream/gel in one (:
prettyyyy unique and interesting concept I would say.

So as you can see there is a clear gel around the concealer, which has two main ingredients: Vitamin E which act as a really good antioxident to help prevent aging. It also has apple seed extract which is what helps to brighten the eye area to help improve and lighten those tired looking dark circles.

So what do I think about the product? Mmmm my honest opinion is that I would probably give it a 7/10.
My reasons?

Okay, so since we've kind of gotten to a bad start with it... lets start with the CONS and work our way up to the PROS, and see what you guys think?

CON number ONE!

Alright, so on the label, it says its supposed to have a nice "dewy" finish. It also said its supposed to stay hydrated and does not crease. So ok I get that concept of having a dewy finish. But the thing is that even though I try to set it with powder and everything, it literally creases soooo easy, I just cannot touch the area under my eye at all! And also because of its "dewy" (and wet) finish, it also causes the mascara that I coat my bottom lashes to transfer onto the skin under my eye even more. Trying to keep the mascara from running from my bottom lashes is already bad enough T________________T

ok so that is all that I have to complain about the fake up pretty much, now here are my cons..

PRO number ONE!

The gel around that concealer really does work, and helps with my dark circles. Being a full time student while working part-time, sometimes really doesn't get me much sleep even if I wanted to *cries*
That's why this is an amazing product for me (:

PRO number TWO!

It's very easy to carry in your purse to take on the go! You can jut directly apply the concealer under your eye then blend using your fingers or a concealer brush, which I like to do (unless you are helping somebody else apply it ^^~ then you would just scrap a bit off and apply using a concealer brush or with your fingers)

PRO number THREE!

The formula really is hydrating, and won't' leave your under eye area feeling dry and cakey. The last thing you want is to make the lines under your eyes even more visible!


And thats it! So my final verdict is.... that fake up is a mediocre product. Yes, It does really help with correcting dark circles at the same time being able to cover it up until it completely heals. At the same time, the formula is a little bit uncomfortable to work with because it is a little bit too dewy (for my liking), but who knows, maybe there are other people who like that texture. But that's just my personal honest opinion :3

For those that are interested, it is available in three shades and can be purchased in store at Sephora or on their website which has a Canadian website now woot woot.

Anyways, thank you for reading and have a good night!

Please feel free to ask questions below and make requests for me to review any other products!

Cheers (:

-Carol