As much as I love wearing my bright eyeshadows and bold lipsticks, my boyfriend doesn’t appreciate the look as much as my beauty blogger friends do.  The terms “clownish” and “’80s” have been thrown around a few times.  Hrmph.  I’m not bitter.  Anyways.

Source: Style.com

Lucky for us, the no makeup look is so on trend this Spring (and forever).  It is a versatile look that can take you through your day in school or the office without scaring the boys.  While I wish that I naturally look this good without makeup, there is work to be done before I get there.  It really isn’t that difficult to do, and it only takes five steps from being scary to looking cute.

#1 — Tame the Brow Beast, or Fill In Your Non-Existent (air quotes) Brows.

If you have sparse or very light brows, fill them in with a pencil or brow powder.  I still love my MAC Brun eyeshadow and MAC Spiked Eye Brows.  If you have a lot of brow hairs (me), use a brow gel to keep the beast in place and fill in any bald spots.  You are trying to get natural looking brows, so go in with a light hand.

#2 — Fake a Good Complexion the Right Way.

Unless you’re a model who doesn’t have a single imperfection or dark circles (and in that case, stay far far away from me!), then grab your favourite concealer now.  I like theBalm Time Balm and MAC Pro Longwear concealer.  Apply it under the eyes, all over the lids, and around the nose to conceal darkness and red areas.

If you want to, you can also apply a little bit of foundation mixed with a highlighter like NARS Orgasm Illuminator or MAC Gold Studio Finish Powder to get a glow all over.  Again, minimal foundation is key to fake good skin.  You might want to invest in a good brush like the Sigma F80 or F82 brushes to buff in that foundation.

#3 — Go Forth and Glow Like Edward Cullen.

Just kidding.  You want to glow like JLo, and not like that vampire.  Blush is another thing that’ll depend on your skin’s undertones.  Pick pink if you have more pink in your skin, and choose peach if you are more yellow.  On my skin (NC35 – NC40), I use either MAC Peaches or MAC Cantaloupe (PRO) blush, and top it with a sheer highlighter with a low amount of shimmer.  A satin (translation: skin like) finish is what we’re after.  If you have a cream blush, that’s even better.  Apply to the apples of the cheeks to achieve the most natural look.

#4 — You Can Always Have More Lashes.

There’s nothing like a clumpy mascara to ruin a minimal makeup look.  Apply a great non-clumping mascara to your top and bottom lashes.  Rimmel Glam’Eyes and CoverGirl Volume Exact mascaras are my drugstore picks.  Apply brown eyeliner to the upper waterline to make it look like you have more lashes at the root.

#5 — Wear a “Your Lips But Better” Colour.

Finish off the look with a very sheer lip product (lipstick, balm, gloss, or stain) that mimics your natural lip colour.  I used Revlon Life’s A Peach lipgloss all over my lips.

Aaaand you’re done!  Easy, right?  Now step out of the house and tell everyone: “Why yes, I woke up this morning looking this fabulous, thank you!”

Wearing My “No Makeup” Look

I really like this fresh face and I might start doing it more often.  Do you wear the no makeup look?  Doesn’t it make you want Spring to arrive now, pleez can haz nao?

© Arianne for Glitter Geek, 2011. | Permalink | 31 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Categories: CoverGirl, Looks, MAC, Makeup, NARS, Revlon, Rimmel, Sigma, theBalm | Tags: fotd

I have been playing around with my Chanel Ombres Perlées de Chanel palette to showcase a couple of looks here on Glitter Geek.  Michelle from Lipstick Rules came up with the great idea of creating both day and night looks using the palette, so I present to you my two FOTDs.

Daytime and Evening Looks

Daytime Look

This daytime makeup is all about the bright glowy eyes and a punchy lip colour.  This look totally screams Springtime.

For the eyes, apply a matte taupe (MAC Coquette) on the crease and blend out softly.  Take a peach pink (Pink) and pat all over the lid with the sponge applicator.  Then, apply a shimmery gold white (White Pearl) on the middle of the lid only, as well as the inner corners and lash line to brighten the eye.  Line the top lashes with a blackened green pencil (Urban Decay Stash), applying it thicker as you move to the outer corner of the eye.  Line the outer half of the lower lashes with the same pencil.  Where you lined with the green pencil, layer a greyish green (Green Grey) on top.  Apply mascara (Rimmel Glam Eyes) to the top and bottom lashes.

For the cheeks, warm up the face with a bronzer (Annabelle Haute Gold) applied on the temples, cheeks and chin.  Then, apply a shimmery peachy pink blush (NARS Deep Throat).

For the lips, apply a bright coral lipstick (MAC Crosswires).  Top off with a shimmery lip gloss (Chanel Maline) down the centre of the lips only.

(...)
Read the rest of Two Looks: Daytime and Evening Makeup Using Chanel Ombres Perlées de Chanel Eyeshadow Palette. (516 words)

© Arianne for Glitter Geek, 2011. | Permalink | 35 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Categories: Annabelle, Chanel, L'Oreal, Looks, MAC, Makeup, Maybelline, Rimmel, Urban Decay | Tags: fotd

Rimmel Stay Glossy Lipgloss in Black Diva

When I first laid my eyes on Rimmel Stay Glossy Lipgloss in Black Diva ($7.99), I was overcome by a mix of inspiration and holy-crap-that’s-really-black!  But you know, beauty blogger needs to make it work.  Challenge accepted.

My gut reaction was to layer it on top of a red lipstick for a vampy lip.  I’ve never done one myself, so I thought it was about time.  I’m sure there are people out there who would wear Black Diva on its own, but not me.  I’m pretty sure I would scare the living daylights out of my cat Scherbatsky.  I’ll then have to reassure her, “Scherbie, it’s mommy, I promise!”

If you want to rock this on its own, I salute you!  I’ll stick with my deepened red lips, thankyouverymuch.  Here I layered it over MAC Lipstick in Dare You.

MAC Lipstick in Dare You / Rimmel Lipgloss in Black Diva / Layered Swatches

MAC Lipstick in Dare You and Rimmel Lipgloss in Black Diva Lip Swatch (Layered)

Wearing MAC Lipstick in Dare You and Rimmel Lipgloss in Black Diva

Pretty wearable, isn’t it?  Would you wear it?  Or does it bring back memories of your goth days back in high school?

© Arianne for Glitter Geek, 2011. | Permalink | 14 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Categories: Makeup, Rimmel, Swatches | Tags: drugstore, lipgloss, lipstick, red lips

It seems that everyone and their kittens are obsessing over Chanel Paradoxal nail polish from the Fall 2010 collection.  I, too, think it’s gorgeous but sadly I am on a self-imposed Chanel counter ban.  So instead of forking over $20+ (likely $30) dollars for the Chanel, I thought I would mix two inexpensive colours that I already have to see if I can get close enough to Paradoxal.

If you’re not familiar with Chanel Paradoxal, have a look-see over at All Lacquered Up for swatches.

Rimmel Lycra Wear in 405 Fantasy, Rimmel Lasting Finish Pro in 207 Steel Gray

Wearing 1 part Rimmel Fantasy, 1 part Rimmel Steel Gray
(I realize that I’m probably never gonna be a nail blogger in this lifetime.)

This was my first time mixing two nail colours together and I was pretty pleased.  I didn’t really know what to mix them in, so I just mixed them over a sheet of wax paper and it worked out well.

I think I have a pretty good dupe here, judging by the swatches I found all over the Internet.  It might be a tad bit too purple, so I’ll probably go 2 parts gray, 1 part purple next time.  It just takes a little bit of elbow grease to mix the colours, and some nail polish remover to clean off the brush to not contaminate the colour in the original bottle.  And for $0, that’s a pretty sweet deal.

© Arianne for Glitter Geek, 2010. | Permalink | 15 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Categories: Chanel, Rimmel, Swatches | Tags: dupes, nails, poor girl's guide

I’m feeling particularly kooky today, so here are some liner swatches in rainbow form.

It’s been pretty dreary in Toronto.  I wouldn’t mind seeing one of these sometime. (Click to enlarge, because duh, you can’t read that small font!  Or can you?)

• R = Annabelle Lip Liner in Cherry
• O = Marcelle Lipstick in Pearl Flame (‘kay, totally not a liner, I cheated!)
• Y = Sephora Flashy Liner in Flashy Copper
• G = Rimmel Kajal Soft Pencil in Jungle Green
• B = GOSH Extreme Art Liner in 10 Deep Sea
• I = Lancome Ink Artliner in Indigo Charm
• V = MAC Liquidlast Liner in Electolady

How has your week been?  I did a major booboo at work today, totally amateurish.  If I wasn’t so lucky I probably would have been fired, or scolded really horribly.  Yikes!  But all is well now.

© Arianne for Glitter Geek, 2010. | Permalink | 22 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Categories: Annabelle, GOSH, Lancome, MAC, Marcelle, Rimmel, Sephora, Swatches | Tags: eyeliner, lipliner, lipstick