No no no no no. Not true at all. Even Mac differentiates between which of their glitters are eye safe and which are not. While some (like this one) are milled fine enough that they aren’t going to scratch out some important part of your eye, even some of the Mac ones are not ok for eye use (this one. I have never in my life seen craft store glitter that looked even remotely fine enough to go anywhere near my eyes- not to mention it might just be totally unclean because it’s not meant for use like that. No thanks, I’ll spend the $11 on some Mac glitter that is certified not to cause my eye to fall out. (Obviously, if the glitter is for use on your skin with some adhesive, hair, etc., it’s a little different; but you should be insanely careful with eyes and lips).
I don’t think they will ever die, because they certainly serve a purpose. What you see a lot of now on the popular make up fashionistas (think: Kim Kardashian) is a layered look. I’ve been wearing Kim’s favorite lipstick a lot lately (Mac Angel), layered with a Mac Dazzleglass lip gloss (Local Colour). So, my point is, you don’t see a lot of matte lipsticks, but you see a lot of layering. Btw: I freakin’ love Dazzleglasses- if you want a little sparkle with no sticky mess, check them out.
Like someone said: don’t let the Mac girls scare you- they love to play with their makeup and do crazy things. Just tell them that you don’t normally wear a lot of makeup and want something neutral and they will hook you up.
If you don’t spend much money on makeup, this post is for you! I’ve always been a drugstore makeup girl. When I was young I didn’t have any money, and now that I’m old I don’t wear enough makeup to want to buy high end. That said…
The liquid concealer that works best for me is Jane. Yeah, they have some stuff that I think of as toy makeup, but the concealer has been excellent. Plus, one time I actually called the company because I couldn’t find their product at Eckerd’s or Walgreens, and had a great customer service experience. The lady told me that in my area they only carried it at Walmart (which I’d been avoiding). We had a nice friendly chat about hating to go to Walmart, and the lady offered to just send me a couple tubes of the concealer. She asked if I’d ever tried the foundation, which I hadn’t, so she sent some of that along too. All for free.
For the last few years, I’ve been using only Milani eyeliner. It’s a CVS brand that goes on real soft. Someone said cheap eyeliner isn’t good in the colored versions, and that may be true…I’m only using black.
I don’t like lipstick either, so I mostly just go with chapstick. I have the True Shimmer version with a touch of sparkle, which looks nice but dries out faster than the original. If I feel like I really need a little color on my lips, I use a lipliner pencil…not to line, but to dab a little color all over, and then finish with clear gloss or chapstick.
No foundation, no mascara, rarely blush (Cover Girl)…My powder is a free sample kit I got from everydayminerals.com. Paid four bucks shipping and got two or three tiny pots of powder, a powder concealer, and a blush color. I tap it out in the lid of one of my old pressed powder compacts and apply it with my own brush, very sparingly. It’s no miracle product, but suits my purposes and those tiny pots’ll last me a long long time.
I have pale skin, so I always wear blush. I love Nars blush in Orgasm. It’s a shimmery peachy pink that looks great on a lot of skin tones. It’s more expensive than your average drugstore blush, but a little goes a long way. Very worth the price.
The other beauty tool I can’t live without is an eyelash curler. Sometimes I wear mascara and sometimes not, but just curling my lashes makes a HUGE difference in how my face looks.
I am hypersensitive, and I usually go with Clinique, except for a few things I get from Almay or Physicians Formula. BiblioCat, Clinique’s DDML just doesn’t absorb into my skin properly. I’ve been using CeraVe, which is pretty good, but I’m thinking I’ll have to go back to the prescription stuff.
I am allergic to Balsam of Peru, which is in almost everything, and can’t use anything with fragrance. It is just amazing what contains Balsam of Peru.
I’ve been taking a break from mascara, and I’ve been using Physicians Formula foundation, but it isn’t working out. I have a bad problem with flaking and nothing seems to give me proper coverage.
I’m a very pale redhead, so even brown mascara looks dramatic on me. Max Factor Volume Couture comes in an auburn shade. It looks maroon coming out of the package, but it’s very subtle on.
Have you tried Paula’s Choice? I’m not allergic to that, but nothing has fragrance, and most of it is available in sample sizes. That said, their fairest foundation is still too dark for me, but so is virtually every other one. The only one pale enough I’ve ever found is by MAC, and it’s still the one all the way on the left.
Bare Minerals as a foundation (after the 96 pots of crap you brush on, you don’t need blush - that is an exaggeration, its only four for me.)
Lancome for lipstick and mascara (can’t stand lipgloss either - not only because it feels lousy on my face, but because I don’t think lips should be shiny, I like matte lips). If I don’t want lipstick, I use either Aveda or Burt’s Bees tinted lip balm.
Generally don’t do liner or a lot of eyeshadow. I have a full collection of Lancome "got it for free when I bought mascara) shadows that I’ll wear when I need to. And an Avada eye pencil.
OK, it’s $50, but I got one of these ‘makeup for dummies’ Bare Escentuals kits from Sephora and was impressed- it did actually work with my skin tone (best described as ‘recently deceased fair’) and the lip gloss was a perfect match-my actual colour but a bit more of it. (And, I think you can use the promo code TRYBE to get a sample of the Bare Escentuals mineral foundation. Terrific stuff- can’t feel it when it’s on and really evens out my ruddy skin tone.
(or pick up a sample of the foundation at a store.
Yeah, I feel the same way, too. It really is like having nothing on at all, and yet you can notice the difference. I think this is what they mean when they say the ideal is to have make up that doesn’t look like make up.
I hate being able to feel foundation on. Probably the mineral stuff (probably the same with other brands of it, not just BE) is all like that (light-feeling) , depending on how much filler/gunk is included.
The thing about make up is everyone’s skin is so different, one type of make up will work for someone but not for others even if the skin type is the same, it’s really only similar and the make up doesn’t work.
For me, it’s mineral makeup all the way for foundation and blush/bronzer. In the beginning, it was Bare Escentuals and other ‘high-end’ because that was all there was. Now that it’s become so much more mainstream, it’s L’Oreal. For lips, I’ve recently been using Cover Girl lipstain. As I’ve aged, my lips have lost pigmentation. The lipstain just makes it look like I got back the pigmentation I had at 16. And the minerals look so natural, that my ‘daily makeup routine’ (lipstain, mineral foundation in approximately three light layers, mineral blush or bronzer) looks like I’m wearing no makeup at all, but don’t have the freckles/unevenness/sunspots that I really do have.
I tend not to wear eye makeup often because my eyesight sucks. So in order to put on eye makeup, I have to take off my glasses, which means I can’t see to put on eye makeup. . .*
In the event I consider what I’m doing “dressy enough” to warrant dragging out my mega-magnifying mirror and putting on eye makeup, it’s Lancome Definicils mascara in black (the only thing I’ve found that makes me look like I have eyelashes!), mineral eye shadow, and, if my hands are steady enough (I suffer ‘non-essential tremors’**), liquid eyeliner.
*It is a testament to the “non made-up look” of mineral makeup that I apply it around my glasses, and even though it covers flaws, there’s still no ‘line of demarcation’!
**A medical term that means my hands tremble, sometimes a fair bit, and it’s not due to anything the docs can figure out, but it’s probably nothing serious; it’s hereditary. All four of my sisters have it, my Dad had it, and unfortunately, it gets worse as you age. Ugh.
I tried the Covergirl lipstain and it looked a little clownish on me. I mean, it wasn’t horrendous on me, but it wasn’t really my thing. I did like that it really stained on, though–lip gloss, obviously, notoriously doesn’t.
Are there any other good lipstains? I’ve heard good things about Laura Mercier’s lipstains.
I could have written this whole post. I’m pale and wear Nars Orgasm blush too. An eyelash curler is one of my most important beauty tools also and I don’t usually wear mascara (if I do, often it’s just clear mascara because I hate having to worry about it running).
A little warning about eyelash curlers: DO NOT use e.l.f.! I used one for a long time and thought it worked pretty well, until one day it ripped out almost all the lashes on the outer third of my eye! Actually, it happened twice but the first time wasn’t quite as bad and I thought I could just be careful and it wouldn’t happen again…but I was wrong.
TheBalm Stainiac lip stain. I have Beauty Queen. I can’t recommend it highly enough. Not only is it a beautiful colour and hardly drying at all, it smells pretty, too.
Oooh, that’s kind of tempting. I posted in the “Products That Actually Work Thread” that Clinique’s Lash Power Long Wearing mascara is the only mascara that I’ve ever tried that didn’t gather on my lower eyelids – and it doesn’t, and for that it is wonderful – but it does clump a little. I’ve heard good things about Blinc mascara from friends; maybe I’ll give this a try… I might have a hard time parting from my Clinique mascara, though. sniff
I also like Clinique’s Almost Lipstick (in its only color, Black Honey)…it’s basically a tinted lip balm. I can’t stand wearing lipstick and am fortunate to have fairly red lips naturally, so I usually just wear clear lip balm (Trader Joe’s Lip Virtuoso is my favorite…and it’s cheap!), but when I want to look a little more polished, the Almost Lipstick is great for adding just a little color without the waxy feel of lipstick.
For eyeliner, I like Almay’s liquid eyeliner for brown eyes in Amethyst – it’s actually not very purple when you wear it, so it’s more natural/neutral than a stark black eyeliner. Almay’s Smart Shade concealer is also pretty good – it’s not very thick, yet it does the job of evening my blotchy skin, and the color (I use the light/fair shade) blends very naturally in with my skin tone.
I like everydayminerals.com. Their sample sizes let me find the right shade of foundation, in the right formula. I prefer their sunkissed fair, in semi matte. I also love their “best friends” and “nick nack” blushers. I am cheap, and like not having to commit to anything.
I also really like my Revlon liquid eye pen. It makes using eyeliner as easy as using a felt-tip marker.
