L is for Love, Lancome, and Laura Mercier

It's only fitting to write this post on Valentine's Day.  I have been insanely busy with work, school and wedding planning lately that I haven't had much time for blogging.  Lancome is in gift right now, so naturally I had to take advantage of some free product.  I must be making the rounds with all the counters because Elizabeth Arden went into gift first and the bag was pink so I had to have it and I have already done my pre-sale for Estee Lauder's gift with purchase in March.

I have never owned any Lancome products before this.  My current manager is on an anti-Lancome kick because of all the chemicals, but I'm staying natural with all my skin care, I'm not worried about the chemicals in my color.  Plus, most of Origins color has virtually no pigmentation, at least all of the fun colors anyways.  I fell in love with the pink in the eye shadow quad from the Lancome gift so I knew I had to do the step up to get the extra gift.  I don't own any other pinks like that one.  I have one pink that is virtually white, just a super pale, shimmery, blush color and then I have a hot pink MAC pigment.  This pink is a gorgeous deep, slightly shimmery, magenta color that is super blendable.

I know the picture quality isn't great, but it seriously just took me about 30min to find a picture of their gift that was this good and included the step up gift.  With a $35 purchase you get a choice of bag (the blue is cuter, but of course I picked the pink one) then a serum, choice of anti-aging night moisturizer, choice of cleanser, then a choice of a lipstick or blush (2 shades of each), a body wash, and a mascara.  Then with a $70 purchase you also get a choice of eye cream, eye shadow quad and makeup remover.  That is a TON of product. When I put the blush on for the first time I was so incredibly impressed.  It smells sooo delicious and blends effortlessly.  It really is a great product.  I put my night cream, eye cream, body wash, and cleanser in my duplicates case...these are all products that I already have (from Origins of course) and I won't need them for a while.  They will most likely be products I use when I travel, or if I run out of my current product and don't have time to get more (highly unlikely since I currently work at the Origins counter).  To qualify for the Lancome gift I bought a couple of their Art Liners and their Clis Booster XL eye lash primer.  All three products are AMAZING.  I am really impressed with the quality of Lancome's products.  The Art Liner lasts all day long with no smearing or smudging and has great color pay off.  The Clis Booster is also incredible...like seriously looks like I have falsies on all day.  It looks like I will be stocking up on a lot more Lancome in the future

Now for the Laura Mercier...I also got a couple Laura Mercier palettes from a friend.  I got the LM Master Tool Box and the French Vanilla eye palette.

The Master Toolbox has two sections.  the top section has 5 lipsticks, and the bottom section has 5 eyeshadows.  As you can see in the swatches above, they all have awesome color pay off (clearly a big proponent for me) and they are a nice range of neutrals that work well with most complexions.  Since I got these from a friend and they are rather old palettes mine did not come with the brushes/lip liner.  So naturally, I went right on over the the MAC counter and bought myself a new lip brush because I'm pretty sure the one I currently have I took from my mother's Mary Kay set when I was 16 and it is terrible lol.

This is a really great brush design because the bottom comes off and turns into a cap.  Props to MAC for that one.

The second Laura Mercier palette I got was the French Vanilla eye palette.

There are some really beautiful neutral shades in this palette.  I haven't had a chance to try these shadows out for myself, but I have swatched them and they have great color pay off and are super blendable.  I am very excited to play with them!

Clinique Chubby Sticks

I wanted to do a quick post on one of my new favorite products:  Clinique's Chubby Sticks.  I would have probably never tried them except I got a small one for free at work.  I absolutely love it.  I have never been much of a lipstick girl mainly because they always dry my lips out sooooo much and look all cracked and gross and it just doesn't work.  These things are soooo moisturizing and stay on all day.  I find myself putting more on, not because I need to spruce up the color, but because my lips are dry.  There are two kinds, the original and the intense.  The intense are a lot more pigmented and give a bolder color, while the original are a little more sheer, but still have good pigmentation.  They leave an almost matte finish which I absolutely love, so that is another added bonus of this product.  Also, they are fairly inexpensive for how much you are getting.  I have four of them now and I am so excited about them.  They even have one called Pudgy Peony that I will be wearing at my wedding to match all my flowers!  It is the perfect pink that gives a pop of color, but isn't too bright!

Eyes

Did a little photoshoot today with my friend Danielle.  She has the most amazing blue doe eyes so I couldn't resist taking some long overdue photos of them.  I drew some inspiration from some photos I have found on Pinterest and Instagram and I'm really happy with the outcome...still learning, but getting better every day :)

I drew a lot of inspiration for these looks from Instagram and Pinterest and I will post a side-by-side photo of the original with my interpretation on my IG account linked above.

As always, please tell me all of your questions, comments or concerns!  Also let me know what you would like me to post next!

Contour/Highlight

I had a couple people ask me to do a contour/highlight post so here it is!  This is for an every day contour/highlight; It is nothing to dramatic, and it is really not as hard as people think. I do this routine daily.
First things first, start with a blank face.  I don't have any makeup on in this picture (clearly).  I then went ahead and did my eye makeup, and applied my foundation/concealer and set it with a powder.

 

 I then start with the contour.  The first thing I do is take the product I'm using to contour (I almost always use Tarte Cosmetics Chocolate Soleil bronzer...which I just realized I have never posted about so I will get that up ASAP because I'm obsessed with it) and I put a bit of the product on my middle finger and blend it in right under my lower lip.  This gives the illusion of a fuller lower lip.

 Next, I take my MAC 168 large contour brush and really pick up a lot of product and make a line about 1 1/2 to 2 inches right under my cheek bone coming down from the top of my ear.  This isn't the greatest picture of this because I was using my cell phone and crapy bathroom lighting.  You really want to make a pretty dark line.  This will give the illusion of a more slender face and more predominant cheek bones.

You're then doing to go back and use and up and down motion to really blend that line out.  You want the line dark enough that you are getting the right illusion, but not so dark that it looks like you drew a brown line down your face.

 Next, you go in with the contour color, just picking up a little this time, and blend it in along the bottom of the jawline...

 ...into the forehead area.  Up the temples and along the hairline.

If you have a large forehead, like me, then you are going to want to go all the way across the forehead creating more dimension making the forehead look smaller.

If you have a smaller forehead, then you are only going to want to contour the outer corners, not go all the way across to really open up the face.

 You also want to apply some contour to the sides of the nose.

 Now for the highlight.  This picture sucks so I'm sorry.  I use MAC Cream Color Base in Diamonds from the RiRi collection.  Since it's a cream I just use my finger because I feel like that gives me the best results and the product is a lot easier to work with when it is warm.

I first pick some up on my pointer finger and dab it right along the top of my cheekbone.

 I then bring it right down the bridge of my nose...

 Above the outer 1/3 of my eyebrow to give it a more lifted affect...

 And on my cupids bow to make my top lip look fuller as well.

And then you're done! Piece of cake!

I hope you all enjoyed this and I hope it was easy to understand!  Contour/Highlight is not as hard and scary as it initially seems and is something that is VERY wearable and not just for a more dramatic look.  Of course the darker you make it the more dramatic it will look, so be weary of that.  As always, please subscribe here and check out my instagram page linked above as well.  Leave me posts of questions, comments, concerns, etc!