Savvy Thinker » Maybelline

FOTD Aromaleigh eyes + Cover Girl lips +

Karin — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 20:15:12 +0000

I felt like wearing turquoise on my eyes today, and outside of the Summer set by Mary Kay, my go-to for turquoise is Aromaleigh. Kristen has beautiful shades of greens, turquoises and teals, and I probably have most of them, at least in sample sizes, which are quite long lasting. They are vibrant and beautiful, if you are on a quest for this color.

I also felt like doing a 5 min makeup today, which I did. The only reason it took longer is because I kept thinking of things I wanted to take pictures of, such as the Chanel container and my powder. So I would digress to that. Aromaleigh is really fool proof. Easy to apply; always looks great and lasts all day. I knew I could do a 5 min makeup with AL. And I had a busy, busy day today, meetings, errands, music lesson, pick and delivery to school and more.

In all honesty, there were two things I meant to do and got sidetracked: concealer, and some of the new Arbonne white shadow in the inner corners of my eyes. That would have taken 30 sec. I just forgot.

Eyes: all Aromaleigh, except where noted
Base: Nude Frost, then BE Queen Phyllis
Lids: Azure
Drylined Top: Aqua Nightmare (love this color!)
Drylined bottom: Caribe, just a touch more blue
Mascara: Stiletto
Tightlined top: NYX pen black
Brows: Merle Norman powder

Primer: Avon Magix
Foundation: L'Oreal True Match, N1 Soft Ivory While it looks like this foundation covers well, when applying it, I'm a little disappointed in how sheer it looks in the pictures. I like my skin to show through, but I like it a little less sheer. I will likely use this more as a highlighter in the future, if I try it again, and it is equally sheer.
Rouge under my sparkly mix of powder: Chanel stick
Blush over: Arbonne Promise
Hightlight: Arbonne Bashful lightest blush

Lips: CG 912+928 + Stila Silver Mix
First: Guerlain liplift primer and conditioner and all round magic product
912 and 928 are plumping colors
1/2 and 1/2 each color, one on each lip, smooshed; then Stila-Silver Mix gloss when some of the lippie was gone to refresh it...this lipstick (928) is the one that hurt my lips after using it exclusively for months. After using every lip balm known to man and still having problems wearing anything on my lips, I remembered I had the Liplift. It fixed the problem with one application. I now have one in my purse and in the bathroom. And I made sure I used it before these colors. I never felt the product sting my lips. 912 is a particularly pretty soft shade. Perhaps tomorrow I'll show it alone.

What do you think?
Do you like to use plumping lipsticks or teals and turquoises for shadows? What is your favorite AL color?

Kristen's birthday is coming up and she'd love to have people participate in nominating her business. See the info here.

Karin
www.savvythinker.com
do not steal my posts -- you know who you are

Originally posted 2009-08-28 17:41:19.

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FOTD Tues Meow AL Fyrinnae

Karin — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 16:52:27 +0000

I'm running behind, as you can see, but here is my look for Tuesday.

Eyes:
Lids: Meow IdealEyes Cat got your tongue? light pink
Crease: AL Spring Solstice Bellflower purple orchid
Pencil Lined top: Clarins Midnight Flash, great purple, now discontinued
Pencil lined lower: Fyrinnae Iimmortalitythen more Bellflower below that
Brows: Clinique pencil
Mascara Upper: BE Buxom; lower: Stiletto

Primer AL
Foundation 2 Chanels to compare
Rouge under powder: Nars The Multiple Riviera
Powder: my sparkly mix, then BE mineral veil as bronzer
Blush: Meow
Lips: NYX Round Gloss Ballerina Pink 36

This was such a pretty, soft look. I felt like spring even though winter is giving us a last hurrah! It's going to be in the low 40s here tomorrow morning! What do you think?

What are you doing with your makeup to feel more spring-like?
Karin

Originally posted 2009-04-07 23:51:16.

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FOTD Meow eyes +

Karin — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 12:43:16 +0000

Today I was doing some more organizing -- putting all my magenta-type lippies in one place and putting my Meow samples by colors. Then I marked them all by their descriptions. I have a disproportionate number of Meow purples and lavenders, though I like to wear those colors. I did have 2 grays and one taupe (which looked green in the ziplock.) That's how I saw and decided what colors to wear. I started with the lipstick, knowing I wanted to wear that again, plus the enhancer I beaded for my daughter's newest bright green pendant (I'm wearing it). Then I saw the Meow colors and knew I was hooked for today.

Eyes: all Meow except where noted, in the order of application
Crease: Taupe -- this looked green in the bag; looks taupe on, though it pulls some lavender in the pictures -- I didn't put any lavender into it except possibly at the lowest point of the crease
Inner corners: Misdemeanor VandalEyes -- citrus green with gold -- love this green!
Outer corners: Jessica R ScandalEyes grape

This is sort of the look I get when I do my mascara, as I tilt my head back and look in a hand held mirror to do the top lashes. Only this picture was taken when totally finished. You can see the gradience of the colors.

Mascara: top, Guerlain; lower:Tarte
Brows: Merle Norman powder
Lined lower: Mary Kay Tahitian Gold (love this color!)
Tight lined top and wetlined lower: Venomous gel liner (the purple that BookGirl liked so well)
Drylined top: Tongue Tied IdealEyes Deep Smoky Plum

No concealer

Sunscreen Neutragena, on face; La Prairie, on my neck
Primer: Avon Magix
Foundation: Chanel, discontinued
No highlighting
Rouge (under my sparkly powder mix) Maybelline Rose Petal Mousse
Blush (over) NARS Riviera stick

Lips: Beauticontrol Perfect Azalea topped with BE Buxom Dominique gloss (clear with white, light blue and silver micro shimmer) -- BookGirl likes this -- I used to wear it a lot.

What I think
When I compare this to yesterday's look, I like the teal greens (better?) but I do like this look and will wear it again. If I don't compare it, I think, good look! Plus I've had several compliments on the lippie, which I need to begin to wear more often again. It's one of their older colors when they color coordinated everything to your season, not that I could wear all the colors that were supposedly mine.

What do you think?

Karin

Originally posted 2009-05-14 13:02:31.

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FOTD Meow Lancome Eyes Too Faced gloss

Karin — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 22:19:05 +0000

I wanted to do a Take 2 yesterday with darker greys, but everything still looked so good, it didn't need refreshing. I'm not tired of the look yet, so today I re-did it using deeper greys.

Eyes:
Base: Dior light pink cream in wand; then my sparkly mix
Lid: Cat got your tongue? Meow IdealEyes Purrl -- light pink
Outer corners: Lancome Platinum Couture (darker grey in set)
Crease: Vincent Longo Concerto, glittery black-grey wet-dry – love these colors
Brows: La Prairie pencil

Lined upper: Clinique Granite 10 Quick Eyes pencil (med grey)
Then used the powder with it to go over the line.
Lined lower: MAC graphblack in waterline, then earthline outside it -- This time it didn’t look too strong, not like yesterday.
Lined just outside the lower Sephora Flashy Mauve waterproof pencil
Mascara top: Guerlain Maxi-Lash Black
Mascara lower: Stiletto I wanted a spiky look – love this and might start using it everyday.

Primer: I forgot! And it really does make a difference
Foundation: Revlon Vital Radiance Color 10 discontinued, can find on Internet
Concealer: Mary Kay Highlighting Pen Color 2
Color under my sparkly powder mix: Mary Kay cream rouge
Blush over the powder: Meow Lush Blush Hugs and Kitties -- I really like this!

Using Beau Nelson of Beauté's technique highlighting my lips
Too Faced Mermaid for lips, rimmed with Pink Bling
You can read about this technique here.

Don't you just love the lips with this technique!
I hope you try it!

How do you like this look?

Have a great day!

Karin

Originally posted 2009-03-26 08:58:17.

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FOTD Maybelline Eyestudio 60 Spirited Seas

Karin — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 14:05:20 +0000

I was struck by how pretty all the colors were in this new display, plus the price is right, about $9.99 each at Walgreen's. It's a little tricky going from a mineral loose powder to controlling how much to grab on your brush from a regular shadow. But I was happy with the way this turned out.

Maybelline 60 Spirited Seas Eyestudio
I don't know if the sparkly goes all the way through. I'm guessing it does not.
4 colors: from a beige to a copper; light aqua; medium slate blue.

Arbonne Delicious lip plump gloss (a red)

Have you tried these?
What do you think?

Have a great day!

Karin
www.savvythinker.com

Originally posted 2009-12-28 09:15:47.

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FOTD MK Eyes + Too Faced + MAC + YSL + Tarte

Karin — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 22:49:37 +0000

This was yesterday's FOTD.

Mary Kay Eyes, except where noted:
Crease: Blue Metal
Inner corners: Chocolate Kiss
Outer corners: Steel -- then more blue over it, as it didn't show up well
Lower dry line: Blue Metal
Tight Lined top: Borghese Charcoal
Lined lower waterline: MAC graphblack, then earthline below it
Brows: La Prairie pencil
Mascara: Stiletto + Tarte on the lower lashes
Concealer:

Primer:
Foundation: Chanel, discontinued
Rouge under powder:
Powder: my sparkly mix
Blush: YSL Touche Blush 19

Lips: Too Faced + Beauté to rim
Caspian Pencil topped with Shell Gloss + Allure to rim

I liked these shades of blue.

Karin

Originally posted 2009-05-02 08:06:38.

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Review: Spinlash Mascara

Karin — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 08:15:20 +0000

Is Spinlash a gimmick? or a gimmick that has found its time? It's interesting that so many oscillating, spinning, and vibrating mascaras have come out at about the same time. Perhaps an inventor made a presentation to a major company -- and was turned down, similar to the story of the variating wiper blades for cars -- and then the idea folks at the major companies brought out their own spin, pun intended.

Ah well, we consumers reap the benefits.

I had not heard of Spinlash mascara -- I'd missed all the TV ads -- until my 13 yo came home and told me that one of her good friends had it. Did she like it? yes. Did it work? yes. And she wanted one...and wanted one... She's new to mascara and doesn't like it to look like she has it on, particularly, and definitely doesn't want any heavier places or clumps.

So, when I found one, I bought it to give it a try.

Here's what it looked like on me today. And this is the first time I've used it on the bottom lashes.

On the whole, the mascara is great. The wand is bigger than most and a tad heavier. There are dual buttons that work nicely to spin the brush in opposite directions depending on whether you are doing upper or lower lashes.

It goes on smoothly. I don't like to do multiple coats, so it took a couple of day's applications to figure out how hard to press the brush into my lashes to get the amount of mascara that I wanted.

It worked easier on the bottom lashes today than I had expected.

Unlike Lancome's Oscillation mascara, this brush doesn't have any particular sensation when you use it. LO can be addictive simply for the little fairy finger massage your lashes get. And sometimes do-it-yourself massage pampering is a very good thing.

Try it, you'll like it.

Karin
5 for how the mascara lasts and doesn't flake or smudge
5 for ease of application once you get the hang of it
3 for size of the wand, it's a bit bulky
1 that you can't change out the battery
4 for price $14.95, less than Lancome, more than Stiletto

Originally posted 2009-03-04 09:13:52.

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Review Maybelline Quad Shadows

Karin — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 04:12:52 +0000

These are similar to the Maybelline Smokey shadow quads, but they are less deep in color, though the placement is the same.

Left: 20 Velvet Crush
Right: 32 Lavender Fields

If you would like to try a more subtle smokey look, these are for you. I liked them a lot.

I also thought it would be fun to try colors between the quads or use some of the deep colors as liners or outer corners with other brands, but so far I haven't tried that.

The colors seem quite lush and buildable, though subtle.

Have you tried these?
These are very reasonably priced at ~$5 from Target (~$6.50 from Walgreen's), so it is definitely doable to try more than one. There are quite a few more colors than what I chose to choose from.

Karin
www.savvythinker.com
don't steal my posts -- you know who you are

Originally posted 2009-09-18 11:31:31.

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FOTD Simplifying makeup to 5 parts

Karin — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 07:06:48 +0000

In the interest of simplifying makeup due to the heat and life getting in the way and making things simple just for me to see if I can... this is today's look -- besides school started today, and I'm back in the carpool mode.

I really would have trouble limiting makeup to 5 or 6 items, unless you don't count things like mascara... So I thought I would think of makeup as 5 parts, rather than 5 items, even though many can do double duty: foundation, cheek color, lipstick, eyes, and brows. And then count items with a bit of leeway. And see how fast I can do my look.

Eyes: Base, plus base shade of minerals, plus one color used on outer edges and to line. And Clinique mascara.
Face: Foundation -- Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse, also used as concealer under eyes. I also highlighted up the middle of my face with Chanel, just because I wanted to. The usual rouge and my powder mix and Arbonne blush.
Brows: La Prairie brow pencil.
Lip Gloss: MAC Rags to Riches

It took me about 7 minutes. I'll try to cut the time down tomorrow. If I knew what look I was going for, it would be faster than figuring out what colors to use in the moment. But I never know what I'm going to want to do facewise until the moment. How about you? Can you plan ahead? I even like to travel with enough choices that I don't get bored with my daily looks. I don't think I could take only 1 shade of eyeshadow!

Karin
www.savvythinker.com

Originally posted 2010-08-09 12:16:48.

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FOTD Lancome Eyes + Guerlain and Beaute lips

Karin — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 00:39:13 +0000

Another 5 mins makeup, done quickly. It's kind of fun to limit myself to one shadow color -- and it's easy to do with this new shape. When the MUA did it for me, she basically mixed colors together to get the depth of shade she wanted. I figure I can do that too if a single shade isn't sufficient.
Eyes:
Base: Mary Kay shadow
Lids in new shape: Lancome Bluebirds Fly
Inner lids: Chanel off-white
Concealer: MK
Lined: Chanel Mercury/Sapphire pencil, sadly discontinued, love this darker blue
Lined lower waterline: MAC white pencil -- I like this look sometimes -- and I've also tightlined the top with white, which is interesting -- to do it right on the top, I should use white on the inner and outer edges and dark in the middle, maybe I'll try that tomorrow, because using white on the entire top shows the white starkly against the color of my eye, but it's really cool against the white part of my eye
Mascara: Stiletto
Brows: Anastasia pen

Primer: Sheer Cover
Foundation: Lancome minerals followed by Lancome mineral powder
Technique: use small amount of minerals on brush, spritz brush with Clinique Moisture Surge Face Spray -- apply. I saw this done by someone else, but never tried it myself before today. I didn't realize how easy it would be to do or how well it would work.

This gives me more of the finish that I like, and in a sense, it is almost like making a liquid mineral foundation on your brush, only it is (maybe) faster than applying in separate steps (liquid, then powder.) Anyway, this is probably the first time I've felt that a mineral foundation worked for my skin type.

Nose: MAC concealer on my nose, buffed in/on and using a triangle sponge

Lips:
Guerlain coffret, the deepest crayon color + Gloss top coat, rimmed with Beaute Paramour
Pretty color! The crayon has a sort of copper look to it, not really red or pink as it looked.

I don't know why my face is in the shadows in the picture. I must have turned away from the light source.

What do you think?

Have you used this technique to apply mineral foundation?
I'm going to try this technique again this week and try using mineral foundation more often. It's nice to have another method that works.

Karin

Originally posted 2009-07-19 18:53:06.

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