Archive | June, 2012

Kat Von D True Romance Eyshadow Palette in Saint

20 Jun

When Kat Von D put her makeup line out.. I was pretty hesitant to give it a whirl. To be honest, any celebrity endorsed products are something I tend to stay away from. But..from researching online it seemed that a few of her products had established a bit of a cult status. So I figured it was time that I give one of the products a whirl and do a quick entry on my experience.

So while at Sephora I start swatching and playing around in the Kat Von D display until I came across what appeared to be her answer to the neutral palette. I am in a bit of a neutral eye shadow phase right now so after playing around with it for a moment, I popped it in my basket and headed to the check out isle.

  As far as the selection of shades go, you definitely end up with more shimmer than matte colors. The only matte ones are the third one from the left (its called <3 ) and the very last one (called carravagio). The shade “<3″ is the real reason I bought the palette to begin with because I had never seen anything like it. Its a matte light pink color with tiny silver glitter in it. It’s just CRAZY gorgeous. The first shade called “Heavens” is a very shimmery white. And the second color “Enjoy the Silence” is a dead ringer for MAC’s eyeshadow in Nylon. The middle two are very shimmery warm gold/bronze colors. The third color from the right called “pray for me” is an shimmery ash brown color. And the last two are pretty much the same shade of dark ash brown but the second from the right called “bookworm” is a shimmer version of its next-door neighbor “Carravagio”.

  All in all I’m really happy with the palette. I wish it would have included at least ONE matte transition shade…like a warm medium brown. AND..although the shadows are very pigmented and easy to blend they get very dusty when you run your brush through them. Consider yourself warned your makeup table might end up covered in this stuff if you are too rough with your brushes in the shadows.

Hope this review was helpful to you guys :) Thank you for stopping by and don’t forget to like the WhitneyLovesMakeup Facebook page and click LIKE for daily looks, giveaways, beauty news, and more. I’ll leave the link below :)

http://www.facebook.com/Whitneylovesmakeup

Have a great day guys!

*Bitesandkisses*

WhitLovexoxxo

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Sigma Performance Eye Kit Brushes

15 Jun

Hey guys! Today I got my Performance Eye Kit in the mail from Sigma and thought I would share my first impressions with you.

A little back ground: When it comes to makeup brushes I don’t think it gets much better. The offer really amazing brush rolls and kits at a reasonable price and the quality of the brushes are not compromised due to the fact that they are sold in a bundle. Which is rare. I think they are very comparable to MAC brushes personally. Although there are certain MAC brushes I do think are worth the investment..but I will get to that at later date.

This is the fourth set I have from Sigma. The first was the essential kit. Then for Christmas my boyfriend got me both of synthetic SIGMAX kits and the Premium Kit. And I honestly love each and every single brush with all my little heart pieces. They are all super soft and well crafted and only one I have come across has given me trouble with shedding, but it’s not enough to bother me. I will do a review on some other Sigma brushes at a later date. I’m throwing lots of promises at you guys in this entry huh? :)

ANYWAYS..I purchased this set because I am a huge fan of creating really crazy high concept kind of eye looks and sometimes it calls for very precise color application. PLUS the smaller tips of the brushes are going to be wonderful for when I have shoots and clients with smaller eye lids which happens more often than you might think. Lets take a close look at the brushes shall we?

From left to right: E11 eyeliner brush. E16 Tightliner brush (for your upper water liner under your lashes…lining her makes your lash line seem TONS thicker). E17 Waterline Liner meant your lower waterline.

Left to right: E47 Crease brush. E 36 Blending brush. I have tons of blending and crease brushes but these are going to be particularly useful when I need a very concentrated and exact placement of color or when I want to blend out only one side of the color which is usually the case with a cut crease look

Left to right: E46 Inner Corner Shader and E56 Lid Shader. Pretty cut and dry what they are for, but they are basically flat brushes perfect for packing color all over the lid, under the lower lash line, and under the brow bone.

Smudge E21. Good for smudging out gel liner on upper or lower lash lines or you can use as brush to draw precise thin lines on your lids with shadow.

And when you spend $50 or more the good folks at sigma send you a free travel size  E25 blending brush. Which I feel you can never really have too many of :)

The whole set was a reasonably priced $55. All in all I am super happy with my purchase and I cant wait to try them out and see all the crazy looks they will help me achieve! :)

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day and gearing up for an awesome weekend. Dont forget to subscribe to my blog and pop by the WhitneyLovesMakeup facebook page and click LIKE for daily looks, beauty news, giveaways, and more :) I’ll leave the link below :)

www.facebook.com/Whitneylovesmakeup

*bitesandkisses*

WhitLove xoxxo

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My Favorite Pencils <3

13 Jun

Sorry teacher, there are just some pencils I don’t see myself ever putting down. Well, at least not for good that is :)

In this blog I am going to cover my favorite pencil products. I don’t see a point in giving a fun little introductory schpeel on the subject as it is very cut and dry. So let’s get right into it shall we :)

1. MAC eyebrow pencil in Lingering.

I don’t think its some breaking NEWS story that eye brows are very important. But if this does happen to be a surprising fact to you I will reiterate: BROWS ARE VERY VERY VERY IMPORTANT!! In fact…ladies if I inspire you to do nothing else in the time we share together connected through the world-wide web bonded in our love for all things beauty related..DO YOUR BROWS! It takes only a few minutes to groom them. But you need to fill them in. Unless you don’t..and there are people who don’t. But the other 95% of you should be filling them in. Nothing looks worse to me than a lady with dark eye makeup on and sparse un defined brows. It’s not a good look!!! Anyways…the point is..once you start filling in your brows its going to be a bit of trial by error to find the perfect method and products for you. Mine is the MAC eyebrow pencil in Lingering. It’s a tiny little pencil that makes creating hair like brush strokes effortless. The formula is long-lasting and the color is perfect. Some brown colors can be a little too red or too dark creating a un natural appearance. Lingering is a perfect light ash brown color that i pair with cork eyeshadow from MAC to achieve my perfect brows :)

2. TARTE emphasize inner rim brightening pencil.

I kind of want to go on and explain the purpose but the name of it kind of eliminates the need to do so. FUNFACT: If you put a white eyeliner on the inner water line of your eyes it makes them appear wider more and more awake. EVEN MORE FUN FACT: Depending on your skin tone white can look a little harsh. The good people at TARTE got you covered though guurrl. This little baby is the PERFECT shade for this task and really does make you look like you had a GOOD 8 hours of sleep when we all know good and dang well margaritas and bohemian rhapsody into the wee hours of the morning got the better of you.

3. Urban Decay 24/7 concealer pencil.

This kind of got me simply because it IS a pencil. I’ve never seen concealer packaged like that. And for all I know that’s for a reason but right now I gotta tell you…this stuff is GREAT!!!!!! I am going through a concelaer faze. I do that. Most often with music..I pick a band, obsess about them for months on end, get my fill, and then start hunting around for my new favorite tasty jam. Same thing with makeup…and right now I am all  about concealer. Picked this guy up on a whim..and *cheese and rice!* I’m glad I did. The product is insanely pigmented, über creamy but not so much that it looses its ability to last a long time, it doesn’t crease, and it doesn’t collect in fine lines. Not that I have any :) (kidding’ish). Just sayin..check these out if you havent already

3. Miliani Liquif’eye eye liner in BLACK. These are a dead ringer for the Urban Decay 24/7 waterproof liners. Just as creamy, pigmented, and once it sets its there until you take it off with soap and water. It non irritating when used in your water line and its only something like $6. With a price that low you can afford to buy all the colors available which include a lovely blue and gorgeous purple.

4. Too Faced Perfect Lips Lip Liner. It is just as the title indicates..a PERFECT lip liner. It goes great with pretty much any neutral lip color you may be rocking that day..OR worn alone with a gloss on top. The choice is yours :)

I hope this was helpful! Dont forget to check out the WhitneyLovesMakeup Facebook Page (I’ll put the link below) to get in on daily looks, fun facts, give aways, beauty news and MORE. Have a wonderful day!

www.facebook.com/Whitneylovesmakeup

*Bites&kisses*

WhitLovexoxxo

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Contrast Smokey Eye

13 Jun

 

I had to do makeup on myself today for an assignment. The task was a smokey eye….*le sigh*. I’m not gonna lie I’m just OVER smokey eyes lately. Well at least what most would consider a “classic smokey eye”. Which is usually grays and black. HOWEVER…there is a type of black smokey eye that I do love but it’s executed differently. Its more a gradient effect from lash line to brow going from black and then up to skin tone. It’s so sexy and that will never change. But yeah…using black and gray to do a contoured crease smokey eye is just over as far as im concerned.

ANYWAYS…

I decided to bust out my trusty painterly paint pot..soft brown as a transition color and contrast in the crease (all from MAC). I  really dig this and would wear it any old-time :) Just hope the instructor feels the same way :) :)

I didn’t show the rest of my face cause I didn’t do anything different than usual :)

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week!

Dont forget to subscribe and like WhitneyLovesMakeup Facebook page..I’ll put the link below!

http://www.facebook.com/Whitneylovesmakeup

*bitesandkisses*

WhitLovexoxxo

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GAME CHANGERS: Beauty Blender

12 Jun

 

I decided to start a new blog series called “GAME CHANGERS” which will basically be a few quick entries about products that I have come across that I don’t know what I would ever do without. This is a blog for the holy grails. The desert island picks. The “how did I function a day in my life before I came across this thing” kinda of items. It could be an actual product or it could be a tool used to apply. It could be skin care..it could be hair goodies! But no matter what, one thing is certain: if someone tried to snatch one of these up from me I would be like a mama polar bear protecting her cubs leaving nothing but ice and carnage in my wake! *ahem* But I digress…

The very first Game Changer I want to discuss is the Beauty Blender. Anytime I take this little baby on a shoot everyone wants to know “umm what the world is that?”. Allow me to explain. The Beauty Blender is an egg-shaped sponge used to blend foundation, concealer, bronzer, blush…WHATEVER. But..its so much more than that at the same time. I have tons of wonderful face brushes. While they are all very lovely in their own right, since I bought this thing I rarely use them.

It starts out with the size of an ACTUAL egg but once you dampen it with water it almost triples in size. It blends any foundation into your skin flawlessly. Without the streaks that some brushes can leave if you aren’t careful. On top of that…it takes less time to blend your foundation out into a poreless perfect finish using this little baby. If your like me and you use your concealer to create a highlighted effect under your eyes, the beauty blender creates a seamless effect between both tones of makeup and (once again) does so quickly. And if you DONT use concealer for this you should start and you should begin using this little guy. It honestly makes all the difference and creates a professional looking application for even the most novice of users. AND…after you have applied your face makeup added your powder and applied your bronzer and blush you can use the sponge to blend alllll the colors together just by “bouncing” it on your skin for a drop dead gorgeous perfectly blended effect. The pointed tip allows for precise blending along the side of the nose and underneath the eyes :)

You can purchase it online at sephora.com. It’s about $20 for one which I know might be nuts to some  people…but I can’t stress how WORTH it is. There are lesser priced alternatives on the market as well. I know the Sonia Kashuk one available at Target is pretty popular for example. I don’t have any personal experience with them but that’s only because I have such an obsessive love affair with the original product. :)

I hope this review was helpful to you guys and thank you so much for stopping by! :) Dont forget to subscribe to my blog and LIKE the WhitneyLovesMakeup Facebook page..I’ll put the link below. :) Have a great day guys!

http://www.facebook.com/Whitneylovesmakeup

*bitesandkisses*
WhitLovexoxxo

 

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FAKE BAKE FLAWLESS REVIEW

7 Jun

 

Ok..Ok..I admit it. I have NOT been practicing safe sun. Over the past three years or so. Its been tanning bed memberships, tingle lotions, and sun bathing without a stitch of SPF. FOR SHAME!

The reason being…I wanted off the sunless tanner roller coaster. Any avid bottled bronze person will tell you, that even though its much much better for you it’s also (at times…well most times) a bit of a nuisance. At least it was in my case. I feel I tried almost any kind of tanning product that was out at the time. Since I had been in the business of faux sun for about five years before I went to the dark side (pun intended).

It was like being in a bad relationship. The promise of good things…a heap of un pleasant and routine steps taken to get to said good things only to end up disappointed and right back where you started. I tried them all…gels..mousse…aersol sprays…creams….butters…color guard…not color guard…graudual tinted lotions…spray tans and on and on. I hated the smell. UGH! The smell! If you have ever tried self tanning you know that awful tell-tale kitty litter smell I’m talking about. And it for some reason never goes away. ON TOP OF THAT…there was the sometimes orange tint it left you with and lets not forget the streaking and the  weird scaly mutant patchy thing that happens when it starts to fade. Is it any surprise I finally relented to and went for the beds?

 

But alas…it was not meant to be. As the years keep flying by I am forced to face the fact that My 30s are a few short years away. Can I just take a second to say “OH MY GOSH!” :( . And with that I decided I was going to stop the chance of pre mature aging right then and there. And come on..its kind of hypocritical to be a makeup artist droning on and on about the importance of skin care and things of that nature and then spend 15 minutes a day frying myself. SO..the hunt was on for a sunless tanner.

After doing my usual research I came across FAKE BAKE FLAWLESS. The company offers several different kinds of formulas from what I gather but this was the one that came highly recommended and well reviewed.

I ordered it from Ulta (there isn’t one anywhere near me..What..the..frick!?) for about $25. I understand that you can order them from Amazon for about $16..so maybe next time. The kit came with: A “mitt”, two rubber gloves, the tanning solution, and an extra topper for the bottle. The bottle came with the same kind of push top that most bottles of shampoo have. They also send you a spray pump top to change it with if that’s what your into.

 

I did the usual prep steps for sunless tanning. Exfoliating..shaving…and applying a moisturizer on my knees, elbows, wrist bones, and ankles to act as  mild guard from the pigmentation as tanners have a tendency to gravitate to dry skin.

I popped the spray applicator on the bottle. The product is a liquid. Which I had never seen before and i felt like using the other top would be obscenely messy. I put the rubber gloves on and the mit on top of the hand I would use to rub the product in. Spritz..and rub. It was that simple. It blended in CRAZY easy. No streaks..its not a thick formula so it only takes seconds to dry. And the real kicker! It…smells…great!! It smells like coconut yummy vacation deliciousness! At that point I was sold..but decided to build my full opinion after I slept on it and washed away the color guard. Which is what they recommend but I guess you could get away with wearing for about 4-6 hours and then washing it off instead of an entire night sleep or more. Which is good to know if I’m ever in a pinch.

In the early mornings light I ran to the shower, lathered up, rinsed off. And VIOLA! I was super tan and not even a hint of orange. It looked natural and non streaky and it didn’t collect on my elbows or anything either. The verdict is still out on how it will fade…if its going to get all patchy and gross but I am taking preventative measures. I’m using a daily moisturizer from HEMP that has a gradual tanning effect. Keeping your skin moisturized will pro long the tan anyways. But…from what I can tell I am going to be a life long Fake Bake customer!!! I havent found a new product that I love THIS much in years. So needless to say I highly recommend it. I would buy everyone a bottle to spread the cheer around if I could :) My only regret is I didn’t have the foresight to take before and after pictures..but maybe I will add some at a later date :)

Thanks so much guys for stopping by! Please subscribe to my blog and LIKE the WhitneyLovesMakeup Facebook page. Hope everyone is doing well!

*bitesandkisses*
WhitLove xoxxo

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Wet&Wild Cheek Stuff mini Haul

4 Jun

 

I know that title couldn’t lack any more creativity if it  if it tried, but I was having a bit of trouble deciding what to call this.

I have a few makeup bits I picked up from the drug store the other day from Wet and Wild and thought I would share a few thoughts and swatches with you guys.

OK

Let me start by saying NO ONE loves a beautiful high-end blush or bronzer as much as I do. However, as much as I love them they are not always worth the hype or price tag and more importantly there are probably much more easily accessible versions of the same product at Wal Mart or CVS or something like that. I have a few drugstore brands and products that I think that are just wonderful and would recommend to anyone. And then there is Wet and Wild. I remember Wet and Wild from when I was a youngin (like 7 or 8 years old) as being the makeup brand of choice to all my friends big sisters. I remember seeing stacks of their products inside those purple glittery caboodles that owned the early nineties. So for some reason..as I grew up I just kinda thought that they were cheap and not very high quality and even as low-priced as they were I didn’t want to waste any amount of money what so ever on them. Boy…was…i…wrong.

I don’t know when but apparently one of the big whigs sat down everyone at wet and wild inc. and announced it was time to step the game all the way up. And step up they did. I first discovered a shockingly impressive increase in quality in their color icon eyeshadow palettes around October of last year. When I say impressive..I dont mean impressive for drugstore caliber makeup. I mean all the way impressive period dot. MAC quality if not better. I will do a separate post of my favorite of those palettes and swatches on another day. I hadn’t really stepped out of the eyeshadow realm until recently when I decided to take a whack at the bronzer, blush, and cheek highligter from them.

I guess everyone else got hip to how great W&W are now because I literally had to scavage around several locations to get the handful of products I got. Lets take a little looksie shall we?

Ok…I LOVE LOVE the blush’s and Bronzer. They are super pigmented and very very smooth! For example: ELF blushes are around the same price..and a few of them are quite nice as well but they are SO chalky. I’m talking when you run your fingers over to swatch it the product gathers inside the little grooves of your fingerprint. CSI crime scene style if ya know what I mean. These are not that way at all…I find them to be very soft. This goes for the bronzer as well. The bronzer in Princess that I picked up is intended to have shimmer in it. And when you swatch it you can pick it up in the light. However once you blend it out..its pretty much totally un noticeable. Once again..I am a matte bronzer freak and this still passed my test.

 

 (left: pearlescent pink.  right: Mellow Wine)

 BRONZER in Princess

NOW…someone at the company put the cart a tad before the horse when they called the highlighter products MEGA Glo. A little Glo..or a BIT of Glo might have been a more accurate title. Dont get me wrong…I don’t enjoy a glitter ball effect on my cheeks AND it’s not to say that these dont have any shimmer what so ever. But..its nothing to write home about. “But it is enough to write a blog about? How does that work Whit Love?” I know right. But seriously though. I wouldn’t recommend picking these up at all. Nothing special..the packaging isn’t nice..they dont smell nice..they arent shimmery..or smooth…or anything. You would be better off using a cream or champagne shimmery eye shadow instead. BUT the beauty of W&W is the price. It’s not like I’m kicking myself in the rear about it just will put it somewhere in the deep dark recesses of my makeup collection and never think of it again :)

I guess if you really wanted to you could use them as a shimmery blush…but like I said..these babies just werent for me :)

I hope you guys enjoyed this blog and thank you so much for stopping by! Dont forget to subscribe and LIKE the WhitneyLovesMakeup Facebook page for more :)

*BitesandKisses*
WhitLove xoxxo

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