The door in my wardrobe*

*the door not actually being there was a disappointment - but at least I was allowed to play with the clothes

//// Make me up, part one

Posted on | February 6, 2010 | 4 Comments

It was funny to realize how bare faced I tend to go on everyday basis. I totally agree with Varpu — make up is fun, but dependence on it is something I want to avoid. Visiting in local supermarket or coffee shop 100% bare faced is not an issue for me, and that is the way I want it to be.

But on the other hand the entertainment value… I have collected a decent stash of stuff and tried numerous brands, formulas and techniques — I definitely could make better use out of them. I’m skipping the makeup too often because of my laziness and/or lack of time.

With makeup I’m definitely not going for luxury brands. Functionality, colors and price are the factors that interest me. If I have to name some well known brands available here in Finland, MAC would be the one to get the credits from me. Their professional approach really appeals to me, and the prices are not outrageous considering the quality and product sizes.

I never spend my cash for the “it” colors of selective cosmetic brands. Nobody’s going to see the difference between them and more reasonably priced options after the color is applied to skin — and there will always be more affordable color duplicates with same — or even better quality payoff.

So here are the tips from makeup lover — who loves also go barefaced — and has no respect for traditional cosmetics marketing :-D .

The basics I use almost everyday are:

Base

Couple of years ago I made a transition from liquid makeup base to mineral powders. That was not particularly easy — changing to the dry base implicates automatically some changes to skin care routine. Another challenge is that mineral makeup comes from multitude of small brands and they tend to have much wider shade selections than any liquid makeup — suddenly the shade that was ‘ok’ was not satisfying enough, I had to find the perfect match.

What are the pros of mineral powders? A good mineral base feels absolutely nothing on my face — plus a light application is almost undetectable, just evens out the skin color and covers small imperfections. Some powders have also neat optical illusion effect, they make the skin look very even and radiant from a small distance. Light application of it does not stain easily and it does not run if I sweat or if the weather is humid. I can have a perfect match to my skintone. It has a very short list of chemically stable ingredients (mineral oxides), so it reduces the daily chemical load a bit. The ingredients are practically all pigment, covering agents and light reflecting agents, so I’m not paying for water and other fillers — plus the non-organic formula is very hygienic. For my surprise mineral makeup is also extremely quick to apply — and streaky application is almost impossible.

Products: Lauress Face Fundamentals — great color selection and three options for different finishes — all of them are good. They ship the samples really fast and the shipping costs are truly reasonable. For application brushes I go for MAC #128 or Alima foundation brush for slightly heavier application and Everyday Minerals eye kabuki for details (around nose, eyelids, inner eye corners).


My favorite brushes. Synthetic Alima brush is very firm and super soft, it gives relatively heavy coverage with minerals easily. Fluffier Mac kabuki is perfect for lighter — and super fast application. I can do my base with eyes closed with this!

The coverage of mineral makeup base can be greatly adjusted with application. A loose, fluffy brush gives a light application, if you want more coverage go for a dense and stiff brush. Different brands have different finishes, the variables are usually the maximum coverage and amount of light reflecting ingredients. The looks vary from very glowy to full matte. The powderiness of mineral base almost disappears when the oils of skin eventually mix to the base, you can speed up this process by using mineral water or face toner spray after applying the base. A light layer of mineral makeup ‘sinks’ to skin perfectly. If you want powdery finish you might consider heavier application and/or separate finishing powder.

Cheeks

Here I’m in transition phase. Used mineral products for a while — but now I’m tired for the messiness of those. I can handle it with base because minerals are so superior to liquids in my use — but with colors…

Currently I have one pressed favorite, above all colors I’ve ever had: Bobbi Brown Apricot. The name is a bit misleading, I think — the color leans quite strongly to pink. It looks super bright on the pan — but gives awesomely refreshing and very natural flush for my cheeks, instantly picking the whole face up. Blush is very underestimated makeup product in general — a good shade improves looks so much. Good contouring and highlighting products are also great additions to makeup bag. I’m not picking options here right now in the middle of this transition phase.


Bobbi Brown Apricot looks almost scary on the pan — but great on! A mix of pink and orange makes it quite versatile for different skin tones.

Decent brush is really an essential for face colors and contouring. My favorite brush type is definitely round double fiber — the thin silk-like longer fibers are great for very light (but buildable) application. Even the most pigmented face colors are easy to apply with these, with no fear of clown cheeks. The problem is that most dual fiber brushes have flat profile — which is not optimal for blush, highlight nor contour application. One well reviewed option is Morgana Minerals dual fiber brushes — they have great selection of sizes. My brushes are not these — but I can’t find the ones I have online anymore.

Brows

For brows I use both powder shades and pencil. Make Up Store has a great three color palette with pale filler shade (or for blondes) — very natural cool brown for universal accents — and grayish brown black for dramatic look. On a travel I tend to use Mac Copperplate from my eye shadow palette, it is a perfect dark taupe matching my mouse brown hair.

For pencil I use Rimmel Brown Black — it’s not all perfect shade, but the consistency is very good (not too soft, not too hard) and the little brush in the lid is handy. It lasts better than powder colors — but I prefer the look I can achieve with powders. Sometimes I use Mac Brow Finisher colored wax for setting and finishing.

Mascara

I’m using supermarket brands, only. I like my mascara water soluble (hate separate eye makeup removers), with moderate volume adding qualities and layerability for more dramatic look.

Products: Max Factor False Lash Effect — great mascara, the only cons are the clumpy wand and relatively high price for a supermarket product. But the stuff itself is good, does not glue the lashes in clumps, does not crumble or stain easily, but comes off with no pain.

Nivea Volume Nanodefinition (duh, I hate the pseudo-scientific cosmetic babble) — very much like my previous favorite, but with better wand and cheaper price. Ugly shell, though.

To be continued!

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Discussion

  1. Varpu
    February 7th, 2010 @ 10:33 pm

    Hei kiitos tästä! Mulla on vähän ristiriitainen suhtautuminen meikkiin tosiaan, mutta aina välillä mietin että mitä jos joskus vähän panostaisi ja vaihtaisi mineraalimeikkeihin tai muuten vaan vähän laadukkaampaan (no MACiä kaikki tuntuvat hehkuttavan). Ja poskipunaan, en omista ensimmäistäkään! Pitää joskus ajan kanssa vähän paneutua tähän asiaan, en tiedä meikeistä käytännössä mitään — ja toisaalta sekin on tosiaan totta että aika samalta ne nyt lopulta naamalla näyttää, oli sulla sitten naamassa se supermarket-meikki tai jotain kalliimpaa. Mutta silti, joku siinä on että jollain tasolla joskus tekisi mieli panostaa laatuun tässäkin asiassa. Katsotaan, katsotaan!

  2. Kamicha
    February 7th, 2010 @ 10:38 pm

    Laatu ja hinta eivät tosiaankaan meikeissä ole sidoksissa. Varmimmin kelpo tavaraa löytää ammattilaissarjoista. Mutta marketistakin löytää paljon hyviä juttuja!

    Haa! Hanki vaan se poskipuna! Mikään ei pelasta paremmin väsyneen näköistä naamaa kuin aavistus väriä poskille (no, toimi kyllä nuorempana vielä paremmin :-D ).

  3. dust
    February 9th, 2010 @ 11:12 am

    I think we are pretty much same skin type and coloring and I use the similar type of blush, or blushes in my case as I’m never lazy for it.
    Drugstore mascara tip: L’oreal Lash Architect is almost as good as my all time favorite Hypnose from Lancome, and Bourjois Liner Effect I found by accident, it doesn’t make an actual line but allows you to build up a base of lashes, great match with eyeliner.
    I’m now in search for one product from No7 that I want to use this spring, but the line is not sold in Holland any more, since like a month or so, curses!

  4. Make me up, part two : The door in my wardrobe
    February 17th, 2010 @ 8:48 am

    […] here I’m continuing the marathon post about my favorite make up products. See the first part here. This is going to be a bit MAC heavy  —  sorry about that  —  but with make up I like […]

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