Products I like for Freelance jobs

People often ask what products I prefer/recommend using on my clients.  Here's a mini set up I used for an expecting mom for her Baby Shower on 4/30/11.

I always prep the skin and lips before applying make up so I use M.A.C. Prep and Prime Skin and M.A.C Lip Conditioner w/Lavender (l/e).  This is a constant.   I keep M.A.C. Fix+ and M.A.C. Strobe liquid, M.A.C. Line filler, M.A.C. Refined Skin Zone (awesome for controlling oiliness and minimizing the appearance of pores), M.A.C. Prep and Prime Transparent Finishing powder (can be used before and after make up), handy as well.  Of course alcolhol, hand sanitizer, and disposables (sponges, lip wands, mascara wands, tissues, etc) are mandatory in order to be as sanitary as possible.  Also I keep hair clips with me just in case I need to clip my clients hair back.

As far as make up products, it varies depending on the look that's requested.  Generally for the face, I will use M.A.C. MSF Natural,  Black Opal Foundation Sticks, Coastal Scents Camouflage Concealer Palette, M.A.C. Prolongwear foundation/concealer, M.A.C. Studio Fix Fluid Foundation.  For the cheeks, M.A.C. Mineralized Blushes in Warm Soul and Love Joy are my absolute favorites.  These colors are beautiful on just about everybody.  If I have a client is has beautiful Deep Dark skin, then I'll use Clinique's Spiced Wine Blush.  To contour/highlight the face, some of my favorites are Clinique Aglow blush, M.A.C. Vanilla/Naked pigments, M.A.C. Cream Color Bases, Cover Girl Queen Collection Bronzers, M.A.C. Blunt Blush and M.A.C. MSFs.  HD powder works wonders to smooth the skin and add a more natural effect.  I alternate between Elf and MUFE.

On the lips, it just depends.  My favorites are M.A.C. Viva Glam V and Viva Glam VI both the lipsticks and lipglasses.  The liners will just depend on the look.  The ones I use most often are M.A.C. Subculture, Whirl, Mahogany, Currant.  Also Clinique Chocolate Chip, Bon Bon, and Black Amber.

For the eyes, I use a variety of eye shadows from different brands.  My favorites include, Coastal Scents, M.A.C.,  and Urban Decay. I typically start off with a M.A.C. Paint Pot.  Eyeliners I use the most would be Clinique Egyptian, Urban Decay Zero, M.A.C. Prunella and M.A.C. Fluidlines (colors vary) for the top.  I like to prime the lashes before applying mascara with Dior primer and then I follow this with Loreal Voluminous Waterproof (if waterproof mascara is requested) or Dior Blackout.

New Mascara --Maybeline Falsies

I finally purchased the Maybeline Falsies Mascara.  On my eyes I used the MAC Wonder Woman Valiant Quad with Revlon Color Stay liquid pen liner. Here's my take on it.

The brush is supposed to make the huge difference in giving you a "false eyelash" appearance. It reminds me of Clinique's High impact Curling wand.  It even recommends similar instructions.  I'l never forget my Clinique Trainer taught us to go from a frown to a smile. LOL!  Meaning use the brush with it turned down first and roll up through your lashes.

The before pic

The before pic from another angle

The results with me looking down

Results with me looking up

At an angle

Overall, the mascara is okay.  Definitely didn't live up to the hype for me.  I used 3 coats to get the effect used in the above pics.  That's not impressive to me.  My dream mascara would allow me to get the look I wanted with only 1 coat.  The search continues...

Red Lips with a dramatic eye

Yes you can!!

I know for the most part you will hear make up artists say choose a feature to accentuate and tone down everything else.  For example: dramatic smoke eye with a nude lip and soft cheeks, bold blush with soft lips natural eye, bold lip with a natural eye and soft cheeks.  Sure, there's nothing wrong with these suggestions but keep in mind that they are merely suggestions not the end all be all.  Make up is fun and expressive.  The best part is if you don't like it, you can just wipe it off.

 Here is a look with a bold smokey eye and a bold red lip to show that you can pull this off without looking like what I hear my clients say a "clown" or a "hooker".  By the way, I'm not sure who started that analogy.  I've never noticed hookers having nice make up with pretty red lips and dramatic eye shadow or pretty blush.  The "clown" look is usually not provided outside of birthday parties are special effects.  Ha ha ha!  Everyone should just have fun with their make up.

The products I used:

Face:

1. Black Opal Foundation Stick (Truly Topaz and Heavenly Honey)
2. Queen Collection Natural Hue Mineral Powder (Brown Bronze 1)
3. Queen Collection Mineral Bronzer (Brown Bronze, Light Bronze, and Ebony Bronze)
4. Clinique Precious Posey Blush <I got this in gratis>

Lips:

1. M.A.C. Lip Pencil (Burgundy)
2. M.A.C. Lipstick (Heartless Limited Edition) <I received this in my gratis>
3. M.A.C. Viva Glam VI Lipglass 

Eyes:

1. Coastal Scents Camouflage Concealer Palette
2. M.A.C. Naked Pigment
3. M.A.C. Brown Script eyeshadow
4. Coastal Scents Smokey Palette (black)
5. Revlon Color Stay Liquid Pen Liner 
6. Loreal Voluminous Million Lashes Mascara
7. Ardell #120 Demi Lashes

Revlon Colorburst lipgloss

Sunset Peach is much prettier in the package. The color payoff isn't as good on my lips 

 I had to put a lot on and press hard on the sponge to get this much to show. :(

Papaya is more pigmented than the Sunset Peach but still not as pretty as it look in the package.

I still had to put a lot on for the color to show like I wanted it to.

H.E.B. Grocery Store Haul. Go Texas!!!

So I went to H.E.B. yesterday afternoon after my cousin called to tell me that they had boiled crawfish on sale $3.99/lb.  I was so excited, I immediately got in my car and drove to the store.  As I walked up to the front of the store, I could smell the yummy spices and my mouth began to water.  I walked to the table and asked the cook if I needed to pay outside or inside.  He said outside however the crawfish wouldn't be done until 30-45min.  WTH???  It was about 12:30pm on Sunday.  Surely he should've been prepared to sell the crawfish by now.  So I paused, then said replied oh okay, I'll be back.  I didn't need groceries and even if I did, I wasn't going to buy them there.  So what to do for 30-45min?  I didn't want to drive back home so I decided to just walk around the store.  This walking led me right to the cosmetic section.  Boy was that a good idea.  It turns out that Krogrer's Grocery store isn't the only one in Houston who has good cosmetics sales.  H.E.B. had ALL Revlon products on sale $2 off w/coupon and ALL Cover Girl (including Queen Collection) $1.50 off w/coupon.  Oh and the coupons are all placed right in front of the products.  SWEET!!!

I've been wanting to try the Queen Collection for a couple of years now but I never see them at Wal-Mart or Target or my Kroger's.  Who knew that H.E.B. had such an awesome collection?  They even had Milani, Wet n Wild, and NYX.  Woo Hoo!  Now the three brands I just mentioned weren't on sale so I didn't get any of these (even though I would've splurged had they had the NYX Jumbo pencil in Milk that everyone on YouTube talks about).  So here's what I bought below

I bought all of this for $62! 

So I've already tried the Revlon Color Stay Liquid Foundation and the Queen Collection Mineral Pressed Powder and I reviewed it in the previous post.  Here is a complete list of products in this picture.

1. Revlon Color Burst Lipglosses (Sunset Peach and Papaya)
2. Revlon Matte eyeshadow (Peach Sorbet)
3. Revlon ColorStay Pressed Powder (850 Medium/Deep)
4. Revlon ColorStay Pressed Powder (880 Translucent)
5. Revlon ColorStay Liquid Foundation (400 Caramel)
6. Cover Girl Queen Collection Natural Hue Minerals Bronzer (Light Bronze)
7. Cover Girl Queen Collection Natural Hue Minerals Bronzer (Brown Bronze)
8. Cover Girl Queen Collection Natural Hue Minerals Bronzer (Ebony Bronze)
9. Cover Girl Queen Collection Natural Hue Minerals Pressed Powder (Brown Bronze 1) 2x
10. Cover Girl Queen Collection Eyeshadow Quad (Brass N Sass)
11. Onyx Make Up Remover Wips 40 pack.

The wipes work alright.  I mean...they are a $1 so you can't expect too much from them.  Of course they don't compare to MAC, Neutrogena, or Ponds but if you use about 5 of them (LOL!) they'll get your entire face clean.  I will try the other products later and report back my results.  I can't wait.

Revlon Color Stay Liquid Foundation

This is how I looked at 5:20pm with the Revlon Colorstay Liquid(Caramel 400) and Queen Collection Mineral Pressed Powder (Brown Bronze 1) without ANY touch-ups or blotting.  I put my make up on this morning before work at 7:15am.  This is unheard of!!!

                                                         

                                                                  Me Blotting at 5:25pm

No body believes me when I explain how ridiculously oily I am.  The sheets just stick to my skin by themselves. SMH

Me after Blotting w/o any extra powder.  So technically no touch ups, just blotting. ;-)

Revlon Color Stay liquid foundation is advertised to last up to 16 hrs.  So far I've made it for 10hrs without having to add more powder, just blotting was done.  I'm thoroughly impressed.  Could it be that I've finally found my "holy grail" foundation????  I'll have to put this up to the test against the Coastal Scents HD foundation before I make my final decision.  I plan to wear the Coastal Scents HD foundation tomorrow and see how it goes.  I'll keep you posted on the results. :D

No More Osama Bin Laden!!!!

This is totally unrelated to make up but I just had to take a moment to congratulate my president Barack Obama for his major accomplishment.  It is done!   I'm so happy for him.  He will go down in history for more than just being the 1st Black President and a Nobel Peace Prize winner.  He was able to get rid of a terrorist that George Bush failed at conquering.  Good job Mr. President!