Mastering A Bold Lipstick Look In 5 Easy Steps

Disclaimer:  This is a post contains some affiliate links.

Views expressed were not influenced in anyway. 

Trying BOLD lipsticks can sometimes be a bit scary.  But with Christmas right around the corner, these bold colors fit right in.  So why not give it a try, beauties? Test on as many as you like and if you don’t like it…try another, and did I mention for FREE? Yes, that is right.  You can test all the lipsticks you want from the convenience of your iPhone or IPAD.  With GlamST iOS App; the first virtual makeup tester app, it’s a lipsticks lover’s dream come true.  Simply snap a selfie and upload it, choose your style and try on all the bold lipsticks you want!

Below are two virtual looks that I was able to create with GlamST.  The impressive thing about this program is you can purchase the makeup you use in the app.  You can get the two lipsticks I used by clicking on them below.  Clinique Superbalm Moistering Gloss in Red Love 324.  And the GUERLAIN Kiss Kiss Shaping Cream in Black Honey. 
 

Want to sport your BOLD LIPSTICK in real life?  Well, now you can by following my few steps below to mastering the bold lipstick.  I will take you from boring balm to bold and beautiful in 5 easy steps!

Step 1:  Prep your lips, with exfoliation and moisturizer:  Dry, chapped lips are not attractive, and bold colors will intensify them.  So to remove the excess dead skin you want to exfoliate your lips.  You can do this with tarte Maracuja Lip Exfoliant. This skin-softening scrub sloughs away dryness and replenishes providing instant hydration.

Step 2:  A lip primer: You can use a concealer for this instead of going out and purchasing yet another primer.   You want to use a brightening concealer on your lips.  This will help to brighten the area, as well as to make some of the lines less noticeable.  Furthermore, it will help intensive the color and help it to last longer.  If you are in a pinch, you can also use foundation. However, you’ll be missing the brightening aspect. The product I like, and it is only $1 is e.l.f essential Shimmering Facial Whip.

Step 3: Lipliner:  Yeah, I know when you hear this, you think of the 80’s.  But they are great,  as lip liners intensify the color, making it more durable. How To Use:  Apply the lip liner in the cupids bow area by creating an X and work outwards tracing the outer parts of your mouth. Finish by blending it into the entire lip.  You want to make sure that the heaviest area is in the center of the lips.   You are building a base for your bold lipstick. In the image above I, used a Nars lipliner.

Step 4:  Application: For Bold lipstick, you want to make sure that select the right type. I prefer to have a creamy lipstick that has some moisturizer when doing a bold lip.  So how to apply? The way to get the best look is to apply with a lipstick brush. Using a brush will penetrate the lip color deeper into the lip helping to build and achieve a pigmented application.

Step 5: Blot: This is one of my LIPtastic tricks! When you go to blot your lips you need to use oil blotting papers, not a tissue!   When to blot? You want to start right after you apply the first layer of lipstick, as this is going to help to remove any excess oils from all the stuff you’ve applied to your lips.  Leaving you with just the pigment (Kind of like a lip stain)…then apply the second coat.


Wanna try before you buy? Download the GlamST app today! It will be liptastic!

5 Tips To Beautiful Brows This Holiday Season!

 Disclaimer:  This is a sponsored post on behalf of  Billion Dollar Brows.

Views expressed were not influenced in anyway. 

 

With my "BOW TO THE BROW" Series, I was able to bring you an entire month of ways to achieve beautiful brows! Well today, I am going to end this series with a chance for you to treat yourself to the gift of beautiful brows.

For this giveaway I have partnered up with Billion Dollar Brows.  Billion Dollar Brows is the only cosmetic company that is solely dedicated to eyebrow health and beauty. 

For those of you who have followed this series, you have seen the importance of brow maintenance.  A great eyebrow, is similar to a great frame that can take an ordinary picture to a different level.  You should view your eyebrows as such.   Great looking eyebrows can form a frame around your eyes taking them from Boring Brow to Brow-tastic in a matter of minutes.

The bottom line with this "BOW TO THE BROW" Series, is no matter what product you use on your eyebrows, it is in ADDITION to your eyebrow maintenance.  Getting them threaded, plucked or waxed is NOT enough.  That is like getting your hair cut but never styling it, you need to take your brows to the next level this holiday season, and Billion Dollar Brows can help you do that!

With that being said, Billion Dollar Brows is proud to offer their bestselling Universal Brow Pencil, Brow Duo Highlighter, Brow Gel and Smudge Brush PLUS a bonus gift of a custom designed pencil sharpener in an amazing holiday gift set, which can all be yours!

If you aren’t one of the lucky ones who wins this.  Don’t worry as you can purchase this set for only $34.99. And if that wasn’t enough, I am going to share with you, my 5 tips to beautiful brows this holiday!
 

Step 1:  Apply Brow Pencil

Product: Billion Dollar Brows Universal Brow Pencil - This universal pencil is a self-sharpening pencil which goes on smooth and natural for all hair colors and skin tones.

Start by taking the pencil & twisting the tip up slightly and get ready to define your brows.

How To: I always use the eyebrow mapping approach with 3 dots, when using an eyebrow pencil. (See image to the right)

First Dot:  Go to the corner of your eye, closest to the nose to measure the starting point of your eyebrow.  Place the universal brow pencil vertically from the inner corner of your nose to the inner corner of your eye... Place a dot here indicating the start of your eyebrow.

Second Dot: The Arch: Align the pencil horizontally from the tip of your nose to the outside center of your pupil or the middle your brow bone, place a dot.  This is the arch & the highest point of your eyebrow, so keep this in mind when placing the dot.

Third Dot: The End: Align the pencil from the outer corner of your nostril to the corner of your brow to place your final mark.

Once you have completed, you want to connect the dots and fill in the brow with tiny strokes; think of tiny hairs when applying the pencil.  And always make sure to twist the pencil back down after using to ensure longevity of the pencil.

Step 2: Blending

Using brush (located on the other end of the brow pencil) blend the pencil into your brow hairs.  IMPORTANT: You want your brows to look natural, so you want gently brush the brow hairs upwards into place.

Step 3: Highlight

Product:  Brow Duo Highlighter - This was a great bonus to get this.  I really liked that it has both a highlighter and concealer!   Brow Duo highlighter gives you an instant eyebrow lift.  Perfect for most skin tones.  It allows you to highlight your brow bone, and for those quick needed touch-ups, the universal concealer comes in quite handy!

How To Use: Apply a line of the highlighter under your brow following your arch as well as above the arch, with two small dots.(see image above)

Clean Up: The concealer end, can be use to clean up any mistakes you've made! 

Step 4: Apply & Blend

Product: Smudge Brush-This synthetic straight edge brush is great for applying creamy products, like the highlighter.

How To Use: Gently blend the highlighter into your skin and the brow line to frame & define!

Step 5: Set

Product: Brow Gel Clear -  The finishing touch for giving your brows a polished, manicured look.   This gel will allow you to seal the deal so to speak, by locking in your look, keeping your brows perfectly in place all day.

How To Use: Apply the wand applicator over the pencil creating the perfect brow.

And now the chance for you to give yourself the gift of beautiful brows this holiday season... Enter to win below.

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Give Yourself A Selfie Makeover, With GlamSt. iOS App.

Makeup is my addiction. I'm always searching for new eye shadows, the next best mascara and more! However, this addiction can be expensive if I had to purchase everything to see whether or not I liked it.  But what if I told you that there is a way to test all kinds of name brand makeup, from the convenience of your phone.  Well, there is with the  GlamST iOS App; the first virtual makeup tester, it’s a makeup lover’s dream come true.

GlamST is an app for iOS that allows you to discover new makeup by choosing the styles you love and trying makeup on your photo. You can freely experiment from the comfort of your phone, try on makeup by snapping a selfie, choosing your style and seeing how makeup would really look on your face.  The iOS app is NOW available, and it is awesome! Just in time to get all the makeup you need for the holiday & Cyber Monday Sales at Sephora! 

So how do you test out these products? Check out the video below so you too can be on your way to the perfect selfie! And don't forget to download the GlamST app NOW! 

Compatibility: Requires iOS 7.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.

DON'T FORGET TO CHECK OUT THE VIDEO BELOW TO SEE ALL THE DETAILS!

5 Easy Tricks To Getting Your Neutral Eye Shadows To Pop

Disclaimer:  This is a sponsored post on behalf of  Paula Dorf.
Views expressed were not influenced in anyway. 

I'm going to share with you today, 5 easy tricks to getting your neutral eye shadows to pop.  For this post, I have partnered up with Paula Dorf Cosmetics once again.  They sent me their Aztec City Palette to try.  This palette, has just the right balance of professional and flirty.  I was surprisingly happy with this set, as I’m not always a big fan of nudes!   But, this Aztec collection gave me many options.  I was able to create a basic nude look, use the blue & other classy colors for a vibrant twist and create a mesmerizing mix of all (which was my favorite look). The sleek mirrored case contains a specially designed double-ended brush, along with five shades of shadows that are nicely pigmented.  Additionally, there was minimal fallout with this product, which allowed me to transform my eyes to the bronzed beauty of the desert, with the perfect combination of the bright blue sky.

Before I get into my 5 tips to making your neutrals pop. I want to let you know a little bit about the Paula Dorf Brand. Paula Dorf is famous for unique "trick" products that offer solutions to every woman's makeup concerns. Their products are high quality and admired as the best in the business by fellow professional makeup artists, celebrities and most importantly, makeup lovers from around the world.

So what are my 5 tips to making your neutrals pop?  It’s relatively simple and once you start this, you will become addicted.

Step 1: Start with a primer, but not just any primer.  When I apply neutrals I like to use a primer that comes in a different finish. There are a few colors to choose from, I prefer to use one that has a white or pinkish tone to it.  Aside from increasing the longevity of the eyeshadows, using one of these help to make the eyeshadows more vibrant. How to...  Apply an eyeshadow primer to the entire eyelid, from upper lash line to brow, and don’t forget the lower lash line if you plan to add some color there too!

Step 2: Follow up with a base.  With the base you want to simply apply it over the primer.  Doing so is going to allow the eye shadow to stick to the lid even more.  A creamy base also allows you to intensive the color pay off of the neutrals! If you don’t have a base color, you can improvise with using a nude eyeliner.

Step 3: Layering: When it comes to neutral colors, I like to choose a medium color for my entire eyelid, than layer on the other hues.  The crease of the eye is also an important area, you want to use the darkest color for this spot. So how to.  Simply take your shadow brush and apply your eye shadow, it is important to blend it into the base. You can do this by wiggling it along this area where you applied the base, creating a darker color.

Step 4: Blending. You want your eyeshadow to look effortless, not like a bunch of harsh lines.  The Paula Dorf's palette made it really easy to blend. As the key to great blending is to have 4 to 5 colors, ones to include as nude, a medium color, darker color, and then the darkest.  And for a memorizing look, a pop of color. Which is what I did with the blue in this palette. 

Step 5: Finish off the look with a great mascara & falsies.  For this look I used my black mascara, false eyelashes, as well as Paula Dorf's, Teal Mascara.  I used the teal mascara on my bottom lashes and on the corner of my lashes.  I was able to add a few more beauty tricks with the mascara. But you’ll need to check to the video below to see this.. as well as the other looks.

So there you have it beauties, a few tricks to getting your neutral eyeshadows to pop and appear more vibrant.  And just in time for "Black Friday", I have a special offer for you. A free Paula Dorf Teal Mascara with purchase! Use Code TEAL to get the deal!

Watch the video and let me know which looks you liked best. Or if you have some tips to make your neutrals be more vibrant let me know!