How to: Lasting lipstick!

Sorry it's been a few weeks since my last post, but I've been busy with work and some surprises from out of town friends!

Something that I get asked a lot is how I get my lipstick colour to last on my lips. 

You can buy long wear lip colour, but often times they dry out the lips and are very flaky, here's my favourite way to make my lipstick last longer than normal: 

Make sure you always start out with moisturized lips. The photo below is Burt's Bees Grapefruit flavour (which I sneakily peeled the label off of.)

Here it is, on my lips! (I'm really glad I don't have black moustache hairs)

Then, what I like to do is take some concealer and really rub it onto my lips. This will give your lipstick something to stick to, and also makes the colour more vibrant.

Here I have NYX Concealer in a Jar in the shade #03 Light ($7.99 CAD) and Benefit's Boi-ing in shade #02 ($22 CAD). Both are cream concealers which tend to be a little more tacky than a liquid concealer.

Here are my lips with Boi-ing on them. I usually rub the concealer in pretty well, otherwise it will make your lipstick too creamy.

Next you'll need some tissue, a small precision brush and of course - a lipstick colour! Today I am going to wear MAC's Russian Red ($18 CAD) because I think it's wearable all year round and a perfect colour to rock at your next Christmas party.

The precision brush I am using is by ELF ($3 CAD)

To start off, take a small amount of your lipstick onto the brush and really rub it into your lips. Don't worry about getting the shape right, just really get the lipstick pushed into your lips.

Here's what it looks like after the first application. Then, take a tissue and blot off any excess colour. For those of you who don't know what blotting is, it looks something like this: 

Now it's time for the second coat of colour. Repeat what we just did. Take a little lipstick on your brush and really work it into the lips for a second time. Once you get the lipstick worked in, blot again! 

This is what my lips look like after a second coat. 
For your third coat, you want to concentrate more on the shape of the lips, as you can tell from my lips - not everyone's are evenly shaped!

So, take some lipstick on your brush and really focus on trying to make your lips as even as possible, sometimes even standing away from a mirror will help. 

As you can tell, my lips look very even and the colour looks wonderful! This method of putting on lipstick is great! After applying this I grabbed a Second Cup coffee and walked to work and although some lipstick transferred to the cup, you couldn't tell by looking at my lips!

I hope you give this a go to see if it helps your lipstick last longer!! And don't be afraid to go for a bold colour!

Thank you for reading! Leave a comment if you have a request, or any questions! 

-ellewar 

Ask Ellewar: All about primers

I recently heard a statistic that only 22% of women know what primers are - which is a little baffling to me. So, I figured I would write a brief post about them.

What are primers?
Primers are magical silicone based formulas that you apply to your face after your moisturizer and before your foundation. The point of a primer is to make your foundation last longer on your skin, and most primers help to fill in pores and lines to make a more even and flawless complexion.

A primer can be used at absolutely any age, and can be worn alone or underneath makeup. Some companies have come out with specialty primers for different types of problem skin. 

Primers are best applied with clean fingers to help warm up the product (if you apply it with a brush you waste about 20%.) 

Without getting too confusing, I will explain briefly that there are different grades of cosmetic silicone. So the cheaper the primer you buy, the lower the grade of silicone that's in it - which is why some drugstore primers (not to bash drugstore brands) feel greasy and don't work as well at concealing large pores and lines. They don't quite have the same longevity as a higher grade silicone does.

I hope that answers a few questions you had about primers!

If you have a request, other questions, or would like me to review something, please leave a comment below! 

Thanks for reading!

-ellewar

How to: Winged liner

Almost every day at work, I have a customer that asks me how I get my liner the way I do.
I like wearing a winged liner because it makes my eyes appear wider, and I just love the way it looks.

My personal favourite type of liner to use for a winged out look is gel liner. I find you can make a smooth line and you can go over your previous lines with it without it clumping like a liquid liner does. 

You can go as thick or as thin as you want, I like to keep it about half the thickness of my eyelid so that it doesn't cover my full lid.

This is just my way of doing a winged liner, there is no right or wrong way of doing so. Keep in mind that it does take some practice and a steady hand to get it right, so don't be discouraged!

The liner I'm using is Bobbi Brown Long-Wear Gel Eyeliner ($26 CAD). I love this liner because it comes in a variety of interesting shades, and it lasts all day. And I mean, all day. But you can use whatever gel liner you like best!

The shade I'm wearing today is Cobalt Ink, a beautiful deep blue shade. I like it because it's different than a typical black shade. I find it more wearable for every day. 

You'll also need an eyeliner brush. I'm using the Quo angled liner brush ($13 CAD). For ages I had been using just a basic angled brush, but switching to this style was the best thing I ever did for my liner. You have so much more control over where you're putting it, if you haven't tried it I highly suggest it! (This brush is also great for concealing small nasty zits!)

Starting off with a bare lid (obviously), you can prime it if you'd like but the liner I'm using stays put without any help.

I start off by placing some liner as close to my lashes as possible, not worrying too much about shape starting off. For every day I don't bring my liner all the way in to my tear ducts, I typically start it where the colour of my eye starts. 

I then take my brush and swipe a line outwards as if it were one of my eyelashes. I don't go too far with this line, just until it meets the line of my crease.

Then, I take my brush from the top of the line we drew, and bring it in to the middle of my eyelid. Again, not worrying too much about the shape just yet.

Now is when I concentrate on shape. I start by filling in all of the holes and deepening the colour. When using gel liner you can go over your line as much as you want without the consistency getting weird. 

Basically, you just want to create a smooth line that goes with the natural shape of your eye. Remember, this does take some practice. If you mess it up, just keep a Q-Tip with some make up remover on it close by. You can always smooth out the line that way.

Pop some mascara on and you're good to go! 

Hope you try it out for yourself if you're not comfortable with winged liner!

Thanks for reading!

-ellewar

Review: Clinique High Impact Extreme Volume Mascara

After hearing many mixed reviews about Clinique's newest mascara, I decided to give it a try for myself. After a few weeks of use: I am not very impressed.

The packaging is very attractive, silver and a much thicker tube than any other mascara by Clinique.

It's only available in two colours, 01 Extreme Black and 02 Black.

I found the consistency to be too chunky, the wand doesn't get squeegee'd off well enough, leaving clumps of mascara on the brush, which translates to clumps on the lashes.

As you can see on the brush, the mascara has smaller fibers that stick to the plastic bristles.

Bare lashes

 Curled lashes

A coat of High Impact. 

It doesn't look too bad and I find it added more length than volume. But it's not a mascara for someone who doesn't want to take time to make their lashes look good. I find when using it I have to take my time to separate the clumps it puts on my lashes.

This mascara comes off very easily with water, and doesn't chip off during the day.

I don't find this mascara to be any more effective than a drugstore mascara and at $23.50 CAD, not worth it! 

Thanks for reading! 

-ellewar