On November 9th, I celebrated my 33rd birthday! I received awesome gifts and even bought myself a gift for my aging skin. hahah!
I remember when Strivectin came out in Macy’s stores where I was working at the time, and everyone was obsessed with StriVectin. The product was originally made and sold as a stretch mark cream, but some ladies that received samples of the product thought it was for their face and they saw awesome results. So now, StriVectin is being sold as both a stretch mark cream and face cream.
I purchased the StriVectin Holiday Gift set at Beauty.com for $99. I thought that was a pretty good bargain since I just wanted to try the products and not commit the the expensive full size bottles. Here’s what you get in the kit:
- StriVectin Neck Cream – StriVectin Neck Cream is the first and only StriVectin formula specifically developed for the sensitive neck area (including the decolletage). StriVectin Neck Cream dramatically reduces the appearance of “turkey neck”. . .lifting, shaping and refining as it produces a smoother, younger-looking contour.
- StriVectin-SD Intensive Concentrate for Existing Stretch Marks – Clinically Proven to Dramatically Reduce the Appearance of Existing Stretch Marks (prominent because of their length, depth, texture, and discoloration). Alters the Appearance of Tone and Texture. Significant, Corroborated Results Seen by 93% of Subjects Tested.
- StriVectin-SD Eye Cream – Helps reduce the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles, and dark circles around the eye. Includes additional soothing agents for the delicate skin around the eye. Same active formula as the original StriVectin-SD? without aromatic oils.
Nothing says Happy Birthday, you 33 year old like a bottle of wrinkle cream! Actually, I am loving everything so far. It seems like I am having minor breakouts, but not sure if it’s from this product. My skintone seems to be clearing up, as in, less red blotches and freckles, in just two days of using this product. The eye cream feels tingly, but the package says that is normal. I do feel like the puffiness is reduced after a few minutes. The neck cream is very moisturizing and although I have no issues with my neck (yet) I am going to continue to use this for preventative purposes!
If anyone has used StriVectin and either loved or hated it, leave a comment about your experiences!
Now on to the good stuff…
Brows
MAC Showstopper Matte shadow (Discontinued, but similar to Espresso) Used Brandon brand eye brow angled shaper brush. I applied Benefit High Brow under brow highlighter pencil BEFORE putting my brows on. It helps the brow powder go on smoother. See my brow tutorial : CLICK HERE
Eyes
I first applied Urban Decay Primer Potion in Nude (UDPP) to entire lid, except where the Benefit High Brow pencil was applied. I used my Mark. brand small, synthetic, rounded concealer brush to apply the MAC Chromaline Black Black Gel to the inner and outer sections of my eyes, only on the bottom lid area, leaving about a half inch blank space in the middle where the copper pigment eye shadow will go next.
I used what people sometimes call the “foiling” technique when applying loose pigment eye shadow. I washed off the above mentioned concealer brush and left it damp. I took a little bit of an old Benefit Cosmetics copper pigment, which looks exactly like the MAC Copper pigment, and applied that to the blank space I left on the bottom lid of my eyes. I used a patting motion to blend in the black edges from the black MAC liner gel. Very lightly! We are going to cover this area with gold glitter, so it doesn’t matter too much if it’s blended in perfectly.
My favorite part is putting the glitter on! (For more detailed info and pics, see my Glitter tutorial!) I used the MAC Gold Glitter, which is a Pro MAC product and can only be purchased at a MAC Pro store location (or ebay.com). Sometimes MAC comes out with limited edition glitter sets that include the gold glitter. You could even find glitter at a craft store, but make sure it’s not huge chunks! The MAC glitter I use is pretty fine. I use eyelash glue to apply the glitter to my lids. It works the best for me and doesn’t fall off while I am out dancing, partying, etc. I use the Ardell lash glue, which comes out of the tube white and dries clear. I made a small dot of glue on the back of my hand, then put a small amount of glitter next to it and mix them up. Using my clean synthetic concealer brush again, I apply the glue/glitter mixture over the top of the copper pigment. I did not put too much on, I wanted the copper pigment to show through just a little bit. I used a hair dryer on a low setting to dry the glitter and glue.
Next, it was time to start doing my crease shading and lining the eyes. I used MAC Sketch eyeshadow in the upper crease, using my NARS Angled Eye Shader brush to blend the crease. I dipped the brush into MAC Star Violet Eye shadow (brown/plum shimmer) and swept the color ever so slightly across that crease just to give it a touch of the shimmer from the shadow. I lined my eyes using the MAC Chromaline Black Black gel liner on top and bottom, then used the MAC 219 pencil brush to fill in the MAC Star Violet eye shadow under the lower lash line.
The mascara used was Lancome Fatale comb wand mascara in black.
Pegasus pendant by Betsey Johnson.
Face and cheeks
For foundation, I used two different brands and formulas. I first filled in my pores and covered blotchy areas with Boots No7 Intelligent Balance Mousse Foundation, in Almond, which is a very thick mousse foundation that leaves your skin a bit dry when used alone. I applied a small amount all over of Maybelline Superstay 24Hr Makeup in Sand Beige. The only powder I used was a very light dusting of MAC Belightful Pressed Powder, which is a heavy shimmer powder, so I concentrated most of it on my cheek area. I applied MAC Pink Swoon blush. (Bright pink, doesn’t look like the picture on the MAC Pro site.)
Lips
This is sort of my signature lip look since I made it up and people keep emailing me about it! hahah! RAD! I used YSL Rouge Pur Lipstick #22 Pink Celebration (Cotton candy pink), over the top of MAC Pinkie Pro lip liner. On top, a coat of MAC Lip Varnish in Polish Me Pink. (Discontinued, neon pink sheer lip gloss)
Hair
I used a huge barrel curling iron (1.5 or 2 inch, I don’t know!) to curl my entire huge head of hair. It took about 20 minutes total. People ask me how I swoop my bangs and it’s SO easy I could die. Instead of curling my bangs under with the curling iron, I curl them up towards the back of my head. First, I spray a very light mist of hairspray that has a light hold. I part my bangs to the side, combing them through to make sure all knots and kinks are out. Holding my bangs straight out in front of me, I curl the bangs up towards the back of my head and hold for about 5 seconds. I let the curl cool off before combing it out. Once it’s cooled off, I start combing downwards and hand-styling them with a little hairspray sprayed on my fingers. I spray everything with a mist and then go!
I had an excellent birthday week, starting off with a great dinner at the Rainforest Cafe in San Francisco. I got some awesome gifts.. check it out!
My fiance gave me an iPod Classic, which holds 40,000 songs. Amazing! Why doesn’t everyone have this??
My mom got me the most comfortable pair of red Cole Haan shoes. They are patent leather red Mary Jane type athletic shoes. I think they are the most comfortable shoes I’ve ever put on my feet.
This is the Coach Gramercy embossed accordian zip-around wallet, given to me by my lovely close friend who obviously has great gift-giving taste.
Now this is what I call a deluxe makeup gift! My awesome friend knows exactly the way to my heart.. makeup and cuteness! This adorable box set by Too Faced cosmetics, “World Domination”, is too freaking amazing. There are eye shadows on top with powder liners and brow filelrs, lip palette on the bottom and bronzer and blushes that pop out on the side of the box. Not to mention.. it’s a music box! Needless to say, it was one of the best birthday’s ever.
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Lazy Gaga, you say? Well, I didn’t get up til noon today and I am tired.. but I still did a tutorial based on Lady Gaga’s makeup style. I am not a fan of her music, and I am not buying into her persona, but a lot of people have inquired about her makeup style, and a lot of people have asked me how to apply loose glitter on the eyes. I figured I’d kill two birds with one lipgloss.
Since I am lazy today, I am not really going to post AGAIN how to put on foundation. I have posted it in other tutorials (see Tutorials on the bottom left menu) and you can check those for reference.
I put two drops of Jane Iredale Liquid Minerals foundatin and two drops of Maybelline Dream Liquid Mousse foundation on my 180 MAC flat top foundation brush. I buffed the foundation on and applied a light layer of Diorskin Mineral powder with my Bare Escentuals Handy Buki brush. I then applied a heavy layer of MAC shimmer bronzer to the length of my cheek bone, and a light layer on the sides of my nose to create a slimming effect.
I really wanted to create a brightening effect around the eyes, so I grabbed my MAC Select Cover-up in pink and my Benefit Cosmetics synthetic foundation brush. I use a brush big enough to cover the whole eye area and underneath the eye.
I applied MAC Showstopper on my brows, which really won’t be seen since my bangs will be covering them. I applied MAC Select Cover-up to the whole eye area, and below the eye down into the cheek area. If you get a little bit of the concealer over your bronzer, you can wait til it dries and apply a more bronzer.
I bought some craft glitter on ebay from a seller in London. I originally purchased this set for use with gel nails, which you will see pictures of the stars in my nails later on in this tutorial. I nearly had to arm wrestle the “nail technician” in order to have this done. It’s not like it was difficult!!
I chose the light lavender glitter for this tutorial. You can probably find glitter like this at Michael’s craft store, it’s very fine and not too chunky. There are several ways to get loose glitter to stick to your eye. I’ve heard of people using mixing mediums by theatrical makeup brands, and those might work well, but I’ve been to MAC master classes before and the makeup artist there used eyelash glue to apply most of his sequins, lace and other craft-type objects to the eye or around the eye. Since we know eyelash glue is safe to use around the eye, I always use it to apply glitter.
Since I sell Mark. Cosmetics, I’ve had the pleasure of trying the brushes. LOVE THEM. I love the mini concealer brush. See the logo above?? Click that link to go to the Mark. website and write in the search box “Concealer Brush” and get that brush!! It’s only $6, but it works really well for applying concealer and especially good for applying the glitter. (SEE MY AWESOME NAILS??)
To apply the glitter: I put a dab of the eyelash glue on the back of my hand, dumped out a little pile of the glitter next to it and blended it together with the concealer brush. I applied VERY thin layers of the glitter glue mixture to the bottom lid only and dried my eyelids with a cool hair dryer in between each layer with my EYES CLOSED while lifting my eyebrows up to stretch the skin. You should only need about two or three layers. Your eyes should feel stiff, and a little uncomfortable at this point. Eventually you will get used to the feeling.
Another cool brush that I just purchased at Nordstrom is the NARS angled eyeshadow brush. I had to mail order it since they were sold out. This is a high quality natural brush which is perfect for getting that angled edge on your crease.
I applied the medical tape to the side of my eye, just like in the Medical Tape Tutorial. Angling the NARS brush with the longer side of the bristles pointing downward, I dabbed MAC Sketch eyeshadow in the crease and in a windshield wiper motion, went back and forth, blending the crease in.
For under the under brow highlight, I used a limited edition Benefit Cosmetics Merengue Show-Off Loose Eyeshadow that was from a holiday kit. This shadow is extremely hard to find and it is not like the original Merengue eyeshadow that Benefit sold for years. This shadow is a crystal white shimmery shadow, you might be able to find a MAC Pigment or Bare Escentuals shadow similar to this.
I applied the loose eyeshadow WET under my brow to get the maximum pigment intensity.
I peeled the tape off … but I felt like I needed more..
I applied Bobbi Brown gel eyeliner and extended it out and up like shown in the picture.
It can be quite difficult to apply eyeliner over the glitter since it creates a hard texture. I think liquid eyeliner works pretty good over glitter, but I was too lazy to look for it, so I used what I found, which was the gel liner. I applied MAC Carbon eyeshadow over the top of the liner to give it a more blended look. If you screw up, you can use a q-tip to reshape the edge of your liner.
I am going a little faster here, sorry if I am confusing anyone. I applied the gel liner to the inner rims and applied two coats of Maybelline Lash Stylist to the top and bottom lashes. I concentrated on the bottom lashes this time. I did not choose to use false lashes, too tired at this point, but you can if you want to!
I used MAC Pro Pinkie pencil, which is a matte neon pink lip and eye pencil, on my lips and I drew a line under my eye area right below my inner rim.
I applied one of my favorite all-time lipsticks, YSL Rouge Pur Lipstick #22, over the top of the MAC lipliner. This color is perfect for that pale mod lip look.
After I applied the YSL lipstick, I felt like I needed some gloss. I grabbed my neon pink MAC Lip Varnish in Polish Me Pink.
I used MAC Pigment in Cool Pink, which is a really nice matte color, to my cheeks. I use this very sparingly since it is heavily pigmented.
No tutorial would be complete with out an artistic photo ending!
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Everyone knows I heart YSL eyeshadows and lipstick, etc. etc. for the pigment richness and silky high-end quality. My dearies at YSL have released info about the new Summer 09′ collection.. totally gorge!!! It looks like the blue eyeshadow craze is back! Both NARS and YSL are promoting neon, peacock blue lids and nude/peachy lips. I don’t think I can pull it off with bright red hair, but I will totally be able to pull off the peachy nude lips, no problemo!
The new YSL collection, inspired by the beauty of Africa, is not currently found on the public YSL site, but I did receive an email promoting the line, so please check back here (click on the image above) to access their “What’s New” page, which should be updating sometime soon with the new collection.
I just love the adorable limited edition gold palettes!! I am a sucker for cute packaging! There are three palattes available, one with coral and one with green hues, also seemingly inspired by Africa. Click on the image above to view the collections.
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