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 

Completed photoshoot - pinup and super hero inspired!

Hey guys!

Remember couple weeks ago, I blogged about my styling project that was inspired by pinup girls, superheroes and all that jazz? Well, I finally received my pictures, completed my project, so sorry I wasn't able to upload the pictures until now. It was super fun to do the photoshoot, and it was absolutely a pleasure to work will everyone, whether it be the model, photographer or the makeup artist. Everything ran smoothly, and we were able to finish an hour early than the predicted time which was awesome! The people that I worked with will be credited at the end so stay tuned (:

Pinup inspired:

This is the photo that I chose for the final look and put on my project. I did adjust the photo a little bit, because she was kind of leaning against her arm a bit, so I got my friend to help me edit the photo to bring in the sides a little bit. The top that I used for these series of photos were actually from a vintage store downtown, and I was super lucky to be able to find it. It was so hard being able to find a corset that was the very classy kind of look I wanted. I kept finding ones that were either super trashy or costed like $300, which I wasn't able to dish out at all. And a corset being a lingerie piece, I believe it was non refundable.
But since the one I got was vintage, I still had to keep it, but $40 was nothing, so I won't complain. For the bottom, I chose for her to wear a sheer chiffon skirt that was higher cut on the front and longer at the back. The shape of it made her legs look even skinnier than they already were and elongated them as much as the heels did.

The day before the shoot, I was absolutely stressing out, and super terrified because I had no idea what to expect. But the moment my model sat on the floor and started shooting, I could feel a sigh of relief, because my model already absolutely knew what she was doing with the reference pictures that I had given her. The photographer was also very helpful with helping to adjust her poses and took beautiful pictures from different angles and using different props for effects.

Next, this is the super hero inspired:

Here is the final photo that I used for the second look. It was just a super sleek, sexy and leather look. A super hero I would relate her to is someone like the Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff. They both kind of have this sexy but a powerful look to them, and that was exactly the kind of look that I was looking for. And I just decked her out with a bunch of Sexpot Revenge accessories to emphasize the look even more (courtesy of my best friend who was once super into punk). 

Here is a focus picture on her makeup:

For her complexion, we just gave her a nice flawless face with a dewy finish. Using light contour on her cheeks and highlighted her cheekbones for that illuminated look. For her eyes, we did a bold crease cut using a champagne colour for the base, and a dark purple for the crease. We kept it a matte finish with no glitter or sparkles. To add even more drama to her eyes, we double stacked lashes. Finally for the lips, we used a powerful and bold red to define her beautiful full lips. 

The first and second looks were both the same makeup, except the second look we adjusted the eye makeup a little by adding the halodium powder by Makeup Forever to add the extra glamour to her look. 

The photoshoot was absolutely successful, I was super happy with the results, thank you so much for everyone who helped out, it wouldn't have been possible at all without you guys! You have no idea how relieved I am to have finished it. Now I got this huge project off my chest, and I can work my butt off for the rest of the remaining semester. Just two more semesters to go! I can do it!

My lesson learned from this shoot is that even though it's something that you've never done before but it's something you love, just be confident and do your best. Even if it doesn't work out the first time, it will in the end. So just keep trying and trying and trying! Through all the struggles I went through not being able to find a location to shoot, not finding the clothes I needed, i had a beautiful photoshoot that was completed. So remember, when there is a problem, stay calm to resolve it, because when you're frantic, you'll never be able to think of something when your head is a mess. So good luck to everyone with everything you do! Stay positive!

Thanks for reading everyone!

Oh yes, I didn't forget, all the people I worked with are Vancouver based, just in case you were wondering.

Credit listings:

Photographer: Matthew Burditt

Stylist: Carol Chen

Model: Stephanie Twarog

Makeup artist/hair stylist: Andrea Szeto

I hope everyone has a wonderful and sunny day! Cheers!

-Carol

#nowplaying: Trap - Henry (on repeat lol)