Battle of the Contour Palettes!

These days you don't even have to be a makeup lover to know that contouring is EVERYWHERE. Almost every major makeup brand from drugstore to high end has come out with their own contouring kit or palette and it it can get a little overwhelming trying to find once that suits you. Well I decided that I'm going to do a little run down of a few of the popular palettes to maybe help you decide which would be a good fit for you. 

Anastasia Beverly Hills Contour Kit ($40)

First up is the Anastasia Beverly Hills Contour Kit. ABH was one of the first brands to really popularize contouring recently and this kit is crazy popular. 

Pros:

-magnetized pans 

-tons of shade selection to choose from

-easy to blend powder

-widely available at many stores and online

-six shades for a variety of contouring styles

-thin palette good for travel 

-fair price for the brand (roughly $6.67 per pan)

-options for matte/shimmer highlight shades

Cons:

-pans are small

-powders can be a bit powdery

-sells out fast and restocks can take a while

-packaging is somewhat bulky compared to size of pans

-no mirror inside of palette

-color fades throughout day

-no guide for product placement for beginners 

Too Faced Cocoa Contour ($40)

If you love the Chocolate Soleil bronzers from Too Faced, you'd love this one. It's has four shades and all are made with the same moisture and antioxidant rush Cocoa a complex in other TF products and has that same divine chocolate smell. I love this one. 

Pros:

-universal shades to use on many skin tones

-warmer shade to bronze

-cooler shade to sculpt

-shimmer highlight shade included

-mirror included in palette

-comes with mini slanted kabuki brush for easy application

-product placement guide included

-buttery texture makes it easy to blend

Cons:

-higher price for amount of product ($10 a pan)

-highlight shade is too glittery for some tastes

-packaging is quite bulky

-light highlight shade is slightly ashy

-can easily look muddy of not blended

-easy to pick up too much product on brush

Kat Von D Shade + Light Contour Palette ($46)

This is a fairly new one on the market and it's been making waves across YouTube and Instagram. It's a best seller and it's usually sold out so if you want this palette, snatch it up while you can!

Pros:

-three different trios of highlight/contour shades for different skin tones 

-large contour pans sizes

-sturdy packaging

-smooth buttery powders

-easy to blend

-very pigmented

-mirror included inside

-product placement guide included

Cons:

-limited availability (Sephora)

-small highlight pan sizes

-no replacement pans available

-pricier option than competing brands

-easy to make skin muddy if using too heavy of a hand

-matching brush sold separately ($36)

-bulky palette not ideal for travel

-no shimmer highlight shade available 

BH Cosmetics Forever Nude Sculpt and Glow Palette ($11.95)

This is an affordable option I threw in the mix because I actually really like this one. It's so cheap yet the product itself is amazing. This is a good option for beginners. 

Pros:

-price friendly

-two different options (Light/Medium and Medium/Deep

-blush shade included

-matte contour shades

-warm and cool shade included

-mirror included inside

-shimmer highlight included

-easy to blend powders

Cons:

-flimsier packaging

-powders can look too orange if too much applied

-online availability only

-can look powdery or chalky if not blended properly

-limited option for very fair/very deep skin tones

-blush is not too pigmented

I just ordered the new Lorac PRO Contour Palette, so when that arrives I'll update this post to include it. I hope you guys found this little guide helpful. Contouring can be a little daunting when you're just starting out and finding the right product can be tricky. Sometimes it just takes a little trial and error. If you own any of these, what are your thoughts? Which one is your favorite? Thanks for reading and have a fabulous day everyone!

St. Patrick's Day Nails | Water Marble How-To

Hello again everyone! I wanted to do another nail tutorial for you guys and what better excuse than St. Patricks Day coming up in a few days? I'm not usually a huge fan of green nails, but for holidays, it's a fun way to show some spirit. Plus, no one can pinch you for not wearing green ;)

This how-to is slightly more complex than my other manicures, as it is a water marble technique. Water marble manicures are kind of messy and time consuming, but the outcome is so pretty once you get the hang of it. 

In this tutorial, I'm going to show you the technique and you can either use it one all of your nails, or just for accent nails like I have done. And at the end, I'll show you how to water marble a cute shamrock for St. Patricks day! 

What you'll need:

3-4 polishes (I picked light green, dark green and a silver glitter)

A plastic container with cold water

School glue (optional)

Acetone polish remover

A small brush for clean up

Q tips

A safety pin or toothpick

Start out by applying the glue with a q tip around you cuticle and the skin of your fingertip. This will help prevent some of the messiness. 

Now grab your container with the cold water. I would use something that you don't mind ruining. I keep this little TupperWare container handy specifically for water marbleing. Take a polish and add a drop to the water. 

Working quickly, add a drop of the next color you want, right in the center of the first color. 

Do the same with the next color. It's important to work fast so the polish doesn't set. I keep all of my nail polishes completely unscrewed and ready for this. 

Continue adding drops until you get the color pattern that you desire. 

Now grab your safety pin or toothpick (I use the pin so the polish doesn't stick to the wooden toothpick) and gently drag it along the rings of polish to create the marble design. 

Once you have a design that you like, dip your finger as flat as you can into the design. Use a q tip to pull the extra polish on the water away from your finger. 

You should have something like this. 

It looks super messy but that's what the glue was for. Gently wipe away the excess polish and glue with a cotton pad with some acetone on it. The glue shields the skin so it should scrap away easily. Any excess polish around the cuticles can be removed with some acetone on a small brush. The e.l.f. concealer brush is great for this. Now with a qtip, drag it along water to pick the excess polish in the water to prepare for the next design. Seal your design with a top coat and that's it! It looks much more complex than it really is. 

A few tips:

*use nail polishes with a thinner consistency. I like Pure Ice, China Glaze and Essie for water marbles. Thicker polishes won't spread in the water as well and you design will come out chunky and it won't dry.

*once you draw your design with the pin, let it sit for a minute or two to allow the colors to set. This makes it easier to apply. 

*letting the design set for even longer will allow the polish to harden. You can then use a toothpick or qtip to gently pull it out of the water and use it as a decal. Just cut off the excess polish like you would a nail wrap. 

*the amount of drops of polish you add will determine the intensity of the marble design. Adding a lot will give you a more tye-dye effect. 

*allow the design to dry completely before adding a top coat. If you try to seal the design while the nail is still tacky and wet with water, it will smudge and NEVER dry!

To do a shamrock:

Do the same steps of adding polish to the water. Now with the pin, gently drag it from the outside of the polish to the center. 

Slowly drag it on the opposite side, going towards the middle. 

Now do the same thing between the first two spots. 

Finish it by doing the opposite side again and there you have it! A shamrock! Let it set and apply to your nail. 

Well thank you for reading and I hope you liked this post! Tag me in any of your water marble designs on Instagram using #livforlashes. I'd love to see them!

Follow me on Twitter! @LivforLashes

Find me on Instagram @livforlashes

Email: liv_2008@icloud.com

Color Theory | Interpreting the Color Wheel for Makeup Application

Total first world problem here, but sometimes the most frustrating thing is trying to figure out which lipstick to pair with your eyeshadow, or which blush looks best with a certain lipstick. It sounds pretty stupid, but this is a pretty common issue we come across when applying makeup. A good tool to keep in mind when doing makeup is an understanding of the color wheel and how it works when pairing shades and tones. 

I was always big in to art and painting so I have a pretty decent understanding of colors and mixing them, but it never really came to mind to use the same concepts for my makeup until the past couple of years. Once I did though, I swear my makeup skills got better. I was more daring with color without the fear of looking like a clown. This post is all about color theory and how to understand the color wheel, and applying that knowledge to your makeup application. I've wanted to write about it for a while, since before I started my blog actually, but I wasn't sure how to word it. But after a long, long (slightly intoxicated) conversation about the color wheel with my sister during a paint night at a local bar, I knew I wanted to write it now. This post may be slighty boring, but I'm going to try to break it down so it isn't too confusing, so I hope you find this helpful!

Understanding Color

The first things to know about the color wheel, is to first understand colors. Hue is the most purest form of color. These are your primary (red, blue, yellow) and secondary (green, purple, orange) colors, and the colors you get when you mix them. Looking at your color wheel, they are the outermost colors on the wheel. So an example of this is red. There are tons of shades and tones of red, but the base for all of them is the hue of red. 

Shade is the hue, with black mixed in. So take red and add black, and you have a darker shade of red. Simple so far right? 

Tints are the lighter variation of a hue, by adding white. So white mixed with red gives you lighter tints of red.

Mixing grey with a hue is then called a tone. Tones aren't as dark as shades, but still a muted, dusty version of the hue.

 

So a little recap so far:

Hue- purest form of color

Shade- mix in black

Tint- mix in white

Tone- mix in grey 

The next thing to understand is complementary and contrasting colors. These are the colors at complete opposite sides of the wheel. They create a strong contrast with each other and make each other really pop. So an example of complementary colors are red and green. They are also good at sort of canceling each other out. Understanding complimentary colors will be especially helpful for concealing. You would use a green concealer to mute out a red color on your face, like an acne scar, or an orange/salmon concealer to hide dark purple/blue under eye circles. *quick tip: blending red and green cream products will give you brown, which you can then add yellow and white to make custom foundations. 

Analogous colors are those that are right next to each other on the wheel. So figure red, orange and yellow are close to each other on the wheel, they blend well together and look appealing in makeup looks. Think an ombré look: the colors are usually variant shades/tints of colors that are neighbors on a color wheel. 

Combining Colors

Now we all know there are a million combinations of colors to use for your makeup depending on what you like and the look you're going for. I don't like to call them rules but I definitely think that there are some guidelines to use for pairing colors in makeup to really make it complimentary and seamless. There are a few combinations that are especially ideal for makeup. 

The most basic color combination is a monochromatic combo. This is sometimes the most subtle or boring combination, but it's flattering on everyone and can easily be beautiful. Mono means one, so for a monochromatic look, you choose one hue, and use various shades, tints and tones of that hue. So maybe I wanted a monochromatic look using purple, I'd chose a variation of purple tones and shades for my entire look, like maybe dark violet lips paired with a softer purple, like lilac. 

Next is probably the easiest to do, if you want a little more color and spice to your look.  Remember when we talked about analogous colors? Well an analogous combination is the same concept of choosing colors next to each other on the wheel and creating a makeup look with them. It's flattering and they colors blend well without clashing. Say I chose blue, green, and yellow. These are next to one another on the wheel, so I don't have to worry about them clashing with each other or competing with one another. This is an especially pretty combination to use as a gradient for eyeshadow.

The third common color combo is a Triadic combination. Tri means three, so this is choosing three hues for your look. The thing about Triadic looks is you pick those three colors by looking at your color wheel, and imagining an equilateral triangle on the wheel. The three colors on the "points" of the color wheel are the colors you could use. For example, orange, yellow-green and blue would be a Triadic color combination. This look is more bright and packs a punch, but the colors still look well together. 

Now I again want to reiterate that these are by no means rules that you have to follow with your makeup, but it is helpful to remember the color wheel and how colors work with each other when doing makeup, especially if you are working on clients with different skin tones and hair/eye colors. Understanding color theory will help you get the most impactful and flattering makeup look. 

Well This was a long one, but I hope you found this post helpful! It can be confusing but you can google the color theory and find tons of other posts and tutorials to help you better understand it. It's a really awesome concept that not only works for makeup but something useful for everyday life like decorating and choosing an outfit. And it really does help on those days when you have a killer makeup look but don't know what lipstick or blush to wear :)

Until next time guys...

xoxo

LivforLashes

Follow me on Twitter! @LivforLashes

Find me on Instagram @livforlashes

Email: liv_2008@icloud.com

Mani Monday | Easy Valentine's Day Mani

It's been a long time since I've done a nail tutorial, so I figured since Valentine's day is coming up, I'd do an easy V-Day manicure for you guys!

It was super simple and practically no tools are needed!

For polish you need:

White

Light pink

Dark pink 

Silver glitter 

Light pink glitter 

The first step is to paint a base color on your nails. For the thumb and pinky fingers, I used the dark pink. Light pink goes in the index finger. White will be on the ring finger and silver for the middle finger. Do two to three coats to make the polish opaque. Make sure your polish is completely dry before moving on to the next steps. I like to watch an episode of my favorite shows on Netflix to pass the time for this :)

Now the ring finger is super simple, just paint a layer of the light pink glitter polish over the light pink base. 

For this manicure, the middle and pinky fingers will stay as is, just the base color. 

For my ring finger, I added a lips design. To do this, find a thin brush (I used an old striping polish brush, but you can use art brushes or even a toothpick) and draw little lines and scratch marks to make the bottom lip, using the dark pink polish. 

For the top lip, it's easier to do it in two sections. Draw the little lines to make a triangle shape for half of the top lip. 

Do the same for the other half.  

For the thumb, I first cut out a heart shape on a piece of paper. 

Next I grabbed a triangle cosmetics sponge and painted on a few coats of the white, light pink and pink glitter polishes. 

Place the paper flat over the thumb nail and sponge the color on to the nail, creating and ombré tie dye effect. 

The next part is a little tedious and totally unnecessary, but I grabbed loose silver glitter and while the heart was still tacky, I used tweezers to place the glitter around the outside of the heart. 

Top it off with a clear top coat (don't forget to paint the edges of your nails with it to prevent chipping) and that's it! Simple and super cute and perfect for a fun manicure for Valentines day!

I hope you liked this post and I'd love to see some of your V-Day nails! Tag #livforlashes on Instagram so I can check them out :)

Have a good day guys!

xoxo

LivforLashes

Follow me on Twitter! @LivforLashes

Find me on Instagram @livforlashes

Email: liv_2008@icloud.com