Mondays are for makeup!

I looove makeup. Always have. From the days of putting on my Mom's lipstick and prancing around the house (I believe this started when we were living in Boston, I was five) to present I've always thought of makeup more as an art form than beauty practice. Now before you worry about me, I promise I'm not crazy in the way I wear it. In fact, most the time I'm pretty mellow in my choices. Getting wild only when for costume parties or nights on the town.

Most of what I know about makeup I learned from magazines. I'm a religious In Style reader and over the past year have been enjoying my free subscription to Glamour courtesy of Smartbargains.com. I always flip immediately to the makeup sections to see what's hot, what's not, and how the heck they do that.

I want to do a series for the next few mondays about makeup.  This week, I'll tell you my ow personal favorites.  Here's your insider scoop...

What's in my makeup bag? Well, that depends on WHICH makeup bag, I have a few. But the one I use daily includes most of my favorites so I'll start there in my sharing.

I use the only foundation I've EVER loved, Mac's face & body foundation. It's really heavily based in water and therefore when you sweat it doesn't get all crazy. It doesn't bead or run, it just reabsorbs. For me, being a heavy sweat-er and living in the sunshine state, this is essential.

Mac is one of the best companies I've found in general for my face BECAUSE being part Hawaiian and living in Florida, I'm not exactly white but I'm not quite black. This may sound funny but when it comes to makeup, many companies don't work hard on the in betweens! In past consultations with several companies I've been encouraged to buy from the African American collections. Which is fine, but often times there not quite right. I get plenty dark enough, especially in the summer but I'm more of a bronzey, glowy color.  And in the winter for obvious reasons, I don't stay quite as dark.  I'd rather wear African American make than qhite though.  Better than having a Casper the friendly ghost face on my suntanned neck and bod but still leaving much to be desired.

Mac meets me in the middle with their N5 foundation and NW35 loose powder. Now, I know there are plenty of you mineral freaks out there as well. Let me clarify, I did TRY using Mac's mineral powder for a bit. My biggest complaint was that it came in this stupid container that had a horribly designed shape that made you dump a large portion out all over the counter every time you used it. What a waste!  Also, I didn't see much difference. I didn't think it was superior and it cost more, so for me it wasn't worth the extra expense. They also (when I tried it) were more limited in color options for minerals than regular powders. This was a barrier.

Blush. I love blush. For those of you who have naturally rosy cheeks or manage to work up a good blush on your own several times a day, I envy you. I love the healthy glow of color in a girls cheeks.  Short of going sunscreen-less for an hour or two in the blazing sun, I rarely get that look naturally.  I keep several blush options for the day to day.  My absolute favorite, which I found because In Style recommends it as THE blush for the medium to dark skin tones, is made by Nars and come in a color (I'm embarrassed to write this) called Orgasm.  Yeah, sorry about that name, I think I just blushed naturally. Also note that this is the color recommended for fair to medium skin as well.

My favorite Mac color is called Springsheen and I use that frequently as well.  I have tried a few other Mac blushes including: Desert Rose, Tenderling, Shy Beauty and Warm Soul.  Warm Soul is from the mineral blush collections.

For day time I usually wear a thin line of eyeliner only below my eyes. Below opens them up giving the appearance of bigger eyes, while put eye liner on lower and upper lids or just on upper makes them appear smaller.  Most days I wear just eye liner typically in brown or blue (blue brightens your eye color - but for day I'd stick to a navy blue).  Depending on the day and outfit though, I'd been known to sport some shadow instead.  My favorites are the Almay trio  collection for Hazel eyes (but I own the ones for Browns and Greens as well).  If you want eye shadows that make your eyes pop, this is a great place to start.  They do a fantastic job.  But I will also cover more of that in a future makeup issue (per Kate's request... : ] ).

My latest addition to my everyday makeup bag I found via a lovely lady working at Sephora.  It's a creaseless cream eye shadow (and yes, that's actually true) made my benefit.  My favorite color (so far) is Stiletto.  It's a plum purple color and quite lovely.  I'd venture to recommend trying a color that works well for you in the same form, it stays on all day, no creases, no rub off, no fading!  I dig.

Also in the eye department I wear a illuminator just under my eyes and in the corners by my nose.  This just brightens your face and gives you a peppy, glowy look.  Again, per a Sephora rep I found Christian Dior's Pro Cheeks (yes, it's actually a blush) in Limelight.  I'm not sure how it would work as a blush...I imagine if you're really fair skinned it could.  But it works well for illuminating the eye area.  It's a little pricey at $31 dollars but I've had mine for well over a year and it's only half used...so, that helps me justify.

Now on to the two more important 

Moving right along, let's talk about my last 2 essentials which happen to be my favorites...mascara and bronzer!  Honestly I've tried a vast array of mascara. Currently, I'm using that hot pink tube with the lime green cap from the drugstores for 4.99(ish). After trying a great many designer mascara's including but not limited too Dior's Diorshow mascara, Chanel, Clinique, and Bad Gal - Maybelliene really just has the corner on the market as far as I'm concerned. It's called 'Great Lash' and I prefer it in the non-waterproof, brownish black.  I've also been known to sport Bad Gal's blue mascara which brightens the whites in your eyes on occasion.  Blue is not for the everyday but if you're going to a wedding or somewhere you know you'll be photographed a lot, it's not a bad choice.  I love to loud on the mascara, so using an inexpensive one just fits me better.

Bronzer.  Now I'm sure plenty of you don't use bronzer and if I can't convince you too, that's fine.  But when used right, I think it's fabulous. I use it every single day.  My favorites I've found to date (and I think I've tried about 50 now) are Kimora Lee Simmons in Sunny I believe it's called or Sephora's 'Pot of Gold'.  Now KLS's has a matte finish and Sephora's is pretty sparkly.  So take that into consideration!  Also, if you're not fairly dark complected I would ask when you visit the makeup store, because they can help you find one that won't turn you orange or make you look like you got a bad spray tan that's fading.  I will say, I hated Mac's bronzer when I tried it.  Eck.  It was like darker powder but not bronzy at all.  Total waste of money.

Last but not least, lips.  Now I'm probably the dead wrong person to recommend my personal regimen here.  I promised you honesty though, so here it is.  I use Chapstick and then a thin layer of Victoria Secrets Beauty Rush lipgloss in ' Strawberry Fizz.  It's glossy but pretty basic and natural looking.  It also smells cute.  This is my daily wear.  I do occassionally sport some Mac lipglass colors but I'd say a couple times a month, usually for going out to dinner or church.

Whew, that was a long entry. So there's my jumping off point.  I'm going to give you makeup scoop for the next couple Mondays but I thought I should start with telling you MY personal favorites.  In the weeks to come I will tell you some great tips for doing things you see in magazines, some money saving secrets, and what colors are recommended for your skin tone.

Your tip-of-the-entry is that if you use Mac products save your containers.  When you've collected 6 to recycle, take them back and pick an eyeshadow or lipgloss of your choice on them.  I did this earlier this week and got a $16 lipgloss free.  I dig this concept.  It pays to recycle.

Love,

B