How do I wear that trend…glowing skin

On the list of makeup trends for 2009, glowing skin was one that I was glad to see. I don’t know if I can truly say that it’s a trend because glowing skin is always a good thing, no matter what time of year. If your skin glows, people notice whether it’s hot outside or snowing heavily. I wanted to post a video about how to achieve the constantly sought after glowing skin, but as I reviewed a few of them I realized that the overall process varies per person and can be very long and drawn out. I didn’t want to intimidate you by posting a 10 minute video featuring all of these different types of products that may or may not work on your skin. So after doing some research, I narrowed it down to two basic essentials.

Exfoliation and moisture.

In order to make your skin look better and work toward the glow, you should exfoliate once a week and moisturize daily. Now you may be wondering what types of products are needed to do this. I’m going to continue to do some research and see if I can find some recommendations of exfoliation products and moisturizers for different skin types. If you have anything that you use that works, please share! Since I have dry, sensitive skin, I can definitely offer suggestions from that side, but I want to offer real life testimonials from other skin types as well. If you have a testimonial you’d like to share, send me a message in the comments.

How do I wear that trend…violet eye liner

Last fall purple made a huge entrance onto the fashion stage. Purple became the new black and what a lovely black it is! Fall/winter were filled with deep, rich purple and violet hues and it was lovely. Now that we are in the spring/summer months, purple is still holding things down but in more understated ways. While you can still wear it in clothes, shoes and accessories, you can also incorporate it into your makeup. One great way to do it and not be overwhelmed by the color is by wearing soft violet eye liner.

The great thing about purple is that it is close to black so those of you that are used to wearing black or dark brown liner won’t be intimidated by purple liner. If you don’t wear much liner, soft violet isn’t too dark and you can use it to ease into darker colors as time passes. I am a big fan of gel liner because it goes on smooth and if you have a sturdy angled brush, it’s fairly easy to apply. However, for you newbies, I would suggest starting with a pencil liner that’s soft. Mac makes some great gel liners that are really soft. Also, below is a video by Makeup Geek showing you how to apply the three different types of liners and she also endorses one of each of the liners. Check out the video for some application tips then head on out and pick up some violet liner.

I am a big fan of Makeup Geek. She is very thorough and clear when she explains makeup application. Here is a link to the article that she wrote about eye liner. She goes into more detail about the types of liners and the pros and cons of each.

http://www.makeupgeek.com/articles-reviews/the-types-of-eyeliners-and-how-to-use-them/

Beauty product test drive…Loreal Lash Architect Mascara

Well let the beauty product testing begin!

I saw a review on this product on the website, www.totalbeauty.com and it was so good that I decided to try this mascara out. I don’t have very long or thick lashes so I am always looking for a mascara that’s going to truly extend and highlight them but I don’t like clumps. I usually wear Great Lash Mascara by Maybelline but I am definitely open to suggestions. Well when I saw the review, I stopped by Ulta and picked up the Loreal Lash Architect Mascara in brownish black.

I’ve been using it for a few weeks and it’s wonderful! It doesn’t overpower my lashes. It does a great job of extending them but without the clutter. It’s also a fairly clean mascara. It doesn’t get all over the place when you apply it. (that is unless you drop the mascara wand on your cheek. I’m not saying. I’m just saying.) The only thing I had to work with a little was the mascara brush. It was a bit longer than the Great Lash brush but once I got the hang of it, I was off and running.

I would definitely recommend you give this mascara a try, especially if you’re looking for something that works well for every day use. It cost me about $8 so it’s not very expensive and it has great staying power.

Here is a picture of it in and out of the package.

Stay tuned for more beauty product tests! I’m looking for ladies to participate in this segment of Clueless Fashionista. I’d like to create a panel of beauty product testers that will submit beauty product test drives of all types of beauty products. I’d like to make sure as many different skin types are represented as possible. I have sensitive dry skin so I definitely need some testers that have normal skin, oily skin, dry skin, super sensitive skin, etc. Send me a message if you’re interested and I will send you the post requirements.

How do I wear that trend…soft eyebrows

As promised, here is the beginning of the breakdown of the Spring 2009 makeup trends. The great thing about these trends is that they can go well into the summer and although they’re trends, they can easily be incorporated into your makeup routine if there is one or more that you fancy.

Eyebrows! They are definitely a point of contention for me as I was born with very thin eyebrows. I never really cared about them being so thin until I got into wearing makeup more and I realized that by not playing them up, I was missing out on a great opportunity to bring out my eyes. So I began to fill them in with an eyebrow pencil. It looked very harsh, especially to someone that wasn’t used to seeing much color above her eyes. I continued with the pencil until I visited the lovely Mac counter and was advised to fill them in with a shadow for a softer, more natural brow. I promptly bought the brown shadow and an angled brush and went home to practice. Egads! I had found the eyebrow promised land. I’ve been filling in my brows that way ever since. So really, the soft eyebrows trend has been my personal trend for years but it was great to see it on the list for the spring. Below is a great video that shows you how to fill in your brows using just a shadow and then how to make them more dramatic by adding a pencil. However, even though she uses a pencil in the second part of the video, her brows are still soft and natural. Check it out and stay tuned. I may be doing my own eyebrow tutorial once I figure out the whole web cam set up for something like that. Enjoy!

If you enjoy this video, definitely subscribe to her youtube channel. I just found her today and I plan on subscribing myself! www.youtube.com/user/benevolentxheart

Beauty Product Test Drive!

Hello everyone! Today I’m debuting another feature for Clueless Fashionista. I’ve run into quite a few women who say they’re not good at applying makeup or they don’t know what beauty products to use for their skin type and they don’t want to spend thousands of dollars trying them all out. I understand completely!

I have very sensitive, dry skin and lately my skin has been going through some changes so products I used to use aren’t working as well any more. While a trip to the dermatologist is definitely coming, I need something that I can use now. I have spent way too much time in the beauty aisle in Target, Walmart and Walgreen’s over the last couple of months trying to figure out what to buy. Ultimately I end up leaving with nothing but frustration. So I wanted to start a feature on here to share beauty product reviews. I will be doing some test drives myself but I want to reach out to the Clueless Fashionista community and involve you in this as well. We don’t all have the same skin type and I need some variety to make sure as many bases are covered as possible.

So I’m inviting you to become a part of the beauty test drive panel here on Clueless Fashionista. If you have tried a beauty product and would like to share a review, please visit the “Contact Clueless Fashionista” page and send me a message. The review should be in a video format so pull out your video cameras and web cams! The video should be no longer than 5 minutes and should be uploaded to a website like Youtube, Vimeo or Bebo. I won’t host them here but I need to be able to embed them in the post. I will post the requirements up soon so if you have questions, either send me a message or keep checking back. You can review any type of beauty product. It doesn’t have to be makeup. It can be face wash, face cream, lotion, body scrub, etc. Any product that is used to make you more beautiful.

To kick things off, below is a video review of E.L.F. brushes. I am a big fan of their beauty products because they’re very inexpensive (prices start at $1) and some of them work very well.

I would strongly suggest you subscribing to her youtube page. She does great product reviews as well as tutorials. I’ve watched many of her videos and done some of the tutorials and she’s very helpful and thorough. Here is a link to her page: www.youtube.com/user/xteeener

2009 Spring Makeup Trends

Hello there Clueless Fashionistas!

While I’ve been doing a lot of talking about current clothing trends, I realized that there are some cool makeup trends going on right now. I know that makeup can be a sticky subject for us Clueless Fashionistas. Either you don’t have time to wear any or you go without or you found a look that works and you stick with it, regardless of when you first wore the look! Then there are those of you that fall somewhere in between those extremes. Well I’m here to help with not only a list of makeup trends for spring 2009, but I will follow up with a “How do I wear that trend” series that explains how to incorporate the different makeup trends. I’m excited because the spring makeup trends are all about a natural, easy look. I think you will enjoy learning how to do these looks as well. If there is a trend you don’t see on this list, please send me a message. If it’s a trend you want to participate in, let me know and I will add it to the list and create a post about it.

Spring 2009 Makeup Trends

1. Soft eyebrows
2. Violet eyeliner
3. Glowing skin
4. Soft blush
5. Nude and pale lip color
6. Soft, smokey eye
7. Lilac eyeshadow
8. Bright eyeshadow
9. Thick, long eyelashes
10. Bold, red lips

So there you have it, 10 makeup trends for spring 2009. Stay tuned for the separate post about each one. I also hope to include a video showing how to do each look. Overall the idea for this spring/summer is softness and simplicity.

Cleaning your makeup brushes

Happy Holidays!

I heard my official Christmas song on the radio the other day so now in my mind it is officially the holidays.  For anyone who’s curious, the song is “This Christmas” by Donny Hathaway.  Once I hear that song, it truly feels like Christmas for me.  Ok, back to the blog subject at hand.

I’ve started to talk about makeup brushes and featured a video or two about how to choose one or using one in applying your makeup.  As a makeup brush newbie, I am quickly learning how much easier it is to get the most desired results when you use a makeup brush rather than what is typically provided for you in the makeup packaging.  Now if you typically buy your makeup from a counter or store like Mac or Lancome, you may not get the applicators that can come with the drug store makeup like CoverGirl or Wet N Wild (don’t knock it.  They make some good products.  You just have to try them out but at those low prices, it’s worth the gamble.  I have sensitive skin and have never broken out using their products either).  However, as someone who uses Mac for some things but drug store brands for others, I typically used the applicator provided to apply my makeup.  I have recently started using brushes and the blending and coverage control is much better with a brush.  With that being said, brushes are typically something you would keep long term (at least 3 months, if not longer) and they need to be cleaned regularly.  I found a great video about how to properly clean your makeup brushes from the lovely, xteener on youtube.  I’ve posted a few of her videos and I like how thorough she is with spelling things out.  Even if you don’t think you need to, check out this video.  It’s only 7:37 long so it won’t take much time out of your day and it’s very helpful.  I figured I was doing everything OK with my brush cleaning and I learned a helpful tip.

If you’d like to check out more of her videos, visit her page on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/xteeener. Happy brush washing!

A handy dandy eyeliner tutorial

While researching different how-to videos to upload that I hope are very helpful, I discovered that the scope of eyeliner goes beyond what I initially thought. In my experience, I’ve only come across liquid eyeliner and pencil eyeliner. I use gel pencil eyeliners from MAC but I’ve started experimenting with other, less expensive brands. A MAC eyeliner typically costs around $12 (from my past purchases) and that can be a bit expensive if you want to buy multiple colors or if you tend to misplace the pencils. I love the gel liners because they’re much easier to put on than some of the less soft pencils. I tried liquid eyeliner years ago and got it in my eye and was instantly traumatized because I wear contacts and can’t have too much random debris in my eye. Well I’ve found a video from the lovely, Makeup Geek that goes through the different types of eyeliner with a brief description about how to apply each one. Her tutorials are really great and easy to follow and I highly recommend you bookmarking her site because she is a makeup pro. I will still post her videos but I will focus on the more elementary ones. She has ones that are much more advanced and great for those of you daring types who want to experiment with different looks. Enjoy!

Thanks Makeup Geek!

The wonders of eye shadow

After posting the blog about how to do a smokey eye, I realized that there are women who don’t wear eye makeup on a daily basis. I used to be that person and it was typically because I was uncomfortable with how it would look. I didn’t want to look crazy so I preferred to keep things basic and just stick with a nice lip gloss (boy do I love my lip gloss!). Eventually I started experimenting with eye makeup. I started out with eye liner and mascara and then branched out into eye shadow. Now I’m a lot more adventurous with my shadow but I also tend to wear it much more often. I may not wear it every day but I will put it on several times a week. I found this great video tutorial on youtube showing you how to put on eye shadow for every day wear. It’s about 10 minutes long but the lady on the video does a great job of breaking everything down. Plus she has a short review at the end of the video where she shows you the best brushes to get and recaps the eye shadow information. She uses mostly MAC products in her video but if you’re looking for brushes at a lower cost, check out the ELF link on the left of this page. They specialize in selling makeup tools at very affordable prices. Check out the video.

In the video, she mentions an article that she wrote that gives more help and insight into wearing eye shadow. Here is a link to that article: http://www.makeupgeek.com

Lots of thanks to the wonderful Haute Mimi for sharing the link to Makeup Geek’s youtube page in her blog at www.hautemimi.com! I will definitely post more videos from Makeup Geek but if you have makeup questions that I haven’t addressed, either send me a comment or visit the website for more info. I’m definitely not a makeup expert and I’m a believer in referring questions to the experts.

Happy eye shadowing!

Halloween follow up

I figure that since I share lots of fashion and beauty tips on this blog, I should share when I put those tips to use.  By the way, I encourage you to share with me as well.  I will even post photos (well photos that don’t include nudity or adult situations, gotta keep the blog PG ya know).  Ok, my latest post was a video about the famously infamous smokey eye.  Well for Halloween I dressed up as a dark fairy, which means that I wore all black and wings.  I also used the smokey eye video along with the eyelash video to enhance my costume.  Well here’s a picture of my eye makeup and lashes.

Check out my Halloween makeup!

So now you know that I use the videos that I post on this blog as well. They do work too! I encourage you to take the time to practice the tips that I share here. You will feel really proud when you successfully branch outside of your fashion comfort zone. I know I did. Be fabulous!