Picking the Professional's Brain - Makeup.

Well yesterday was makeover day and I took full advantage of having 3 professionals working on me to ask questions! I wanted to share a few tidbits I learned with you from the gal who did my makeup...

I'm fasinated by people who are good at makeup because while I love to dabble and could spent a good hour playing in Sephora, I just don't have the creative genius some people have, especially in the eyeshadow department. I see these cool new trends and think 'I wouldn't know where to start'. Anybody with me here? She taught me how to do a smokey eye, which I've always though were really cool but with a color palette that works for me. Apparently because my eyes are hazel/green (but people assume their brown because I'm THAT bad at doing eye makeup) - I should stick to plums and peaches and never ever use neutrals. Epic fail on my part...guess I'm cleaning out my makeup bag and starting fresh! I mean, I knew from art school that purples pop greens so I do have a few of those but I usually combine them with neutrals which apparently wasn't doing my eyes any favors.

I talked to her a bit about how to keep from being shiney as well. I have oily skin and midday I tend to get shiney which also sometimes makes my makeup gather in dark or orangey looking ...puddles? I hate this. It's made worse by the fact that I'm dark complected and therefore my makeup is dark. Anywho, she recommend a primer that's made to control oil. So I've added that to my 'to buy' list. I know bare essentuals makes one but I'm not a huge fan of their products, so I'm still looking. I've used Makeup Forever's mist and fix and I like that for what it does but it doesn't control my oil factor. I've also tried the photo finish product that magazines rave about but it doesn't control my oil. Blah. She also said to buy buy buy oil blotters and have them everywhere. In the car, in every purse, in the house, in a pocket. Any and everywhere.

Ever wonder who makes the best bronzer? Me too. I swear by bronzer and since my face is always paler than my body, I'd probably look like a freak without it. She didn't really have an opinion but I've tried many and the best for me has been Nars brand bronzers and the 'Pot of Gold' by Sephora. Thought I'd share that anyway.

After my conversations with her I poured over the stack of magazines that had been building up on my coffee table for weeks and came up with a few other things for my new makeup hit list which includes:

- oil reducing primer
- eye lash curler
- oil blotting paper
- concealer stick
- eye liner brush (so you can use eye shadow as liner, which I learned about yesterday as well)
- purple shadows
- deeper lip gloss

I hit Nordstrom Rack on lunch and had much success:

Whew. Still have a few things left to collect but I'm going to hit Ulta soon with a coupon from May's InStyle magazine and take care of the rest.

Love,

B