Get Pretty Brows!

Our eyebrows are something which really shapes and literally makes our face. Therefore, it is very important not to forget them in your daily beauty routine. It only takes about one or two minutes every morning to dramatically change your whole look by paying a bit of attention to your brows!

1) Tweezing
In order to be able to spend just two minutes on your brows every morning, you need to have them in the correct shape. Now there are many ways to achieve this. You can tweeze yourself, or have it done by a professional. Many women prefer going to a professional at first, and then they keep their brows in shape by themselves. Some go to a salon every now and then, others just for the first time. Personally, I always tweeze my brows myself.

Quick tip: At first, I just tweezed a little bit every night, until my brows had the shape that I wanted. This way, I avoided the pitfall of overplucking, since I had a day in between tweezing session, which I could use to decide where I wanted to tweeze. After this, I just made it a routine to check my brows when I take off my makeup at night. If I see any hairs where I don't want them, I just pluck them, and that's how I keep my brows looking like I want them to look.

2) The upper brow-line

For steps two and three, you are going to need a product similar to the one you see pictured above. I mentioned it in the post about my favourite products of 2010 (read about it here), and it is the Tri Brow Color by Make Up Store. I love this product, because it has all three colours that I need for my brows, and those colours last on my brows all day. So much easier than using three eyeshadows!

All right, now onto the actual step! You can see this in a video on YouTube from MakeupByTiffanyD, but basically, you brush your eyebrows down, dip an angled brush like the one above (love it, by The Body Shop) in the two lighter colours (mix them to get your correct colour - it should be lighter than your true brow colour) and just run it on the upper brow-liner. This gives them fullness. Now brush your eyebrows back into their regular shape.

3) The lower brow-line

Blonde hair: Using the same angled brush, mix the same colours as in step two, and run them across the lower brow-line. You can fill in any gaps, make your brows fuller and create a bit of a tail. Be careful, though, to stay more or less roughly within your natural brow shape, otherwise your brows will look fake. This is why step one is so important.

Brunette hair: Using the same angled brush, mix the two darker colours, but be careful with the darkest one - it is almost black. Run this across your lower brow-line, but focus on areas where you need more fullness - for most people, this is the tail, but if you have any gaps, you want to fill those in too. Take care to stay more or less rougly within your natural brow shape, though, otherwise your brows will look fake. This is why step one is so important.

And you're done! Your brows should look pretty, full and defined. Step one and two are the steps I do each morning. If you wish to, you can add the extra step of using a brow gel to hold your brows in place.

For more definition: If you want even more definition, you can conceal around your brows, using a flat, stiff concealer brush (I love The Body Shop's lip brush for this) and a concealer in the colour of your skin. This makes brows stand out even more.

Did you know? Fuller brows make your face look slimmer, whereas thinner or overtweezed brows tend to make your face look fuller.

Love, Miss Diorista

P.S. First picture is from www.weddingssource.com. The second one is mine.

A fun, bright, purple eye!

I came up with this look a few days ago when my girlies and I were preparing for a "girl's night out". They really liked it and so did I, lol! It is even brighter in person than on the pictures, though you can of course control that a bit with the shadows you choose to use. This is an easy look to do, and does not take a whole lot of time.
The main trick is so fun... read on!

Products used:
Tape
Eyeshadow base
Blue eyeshadow (shimmery)
Dark blue eyeshadow (shimmery or matte)
Light purple eyeshadow (shimmery)
Pink eyeshadow (shimmery)
Glitter eyeliner (preferably purple)
Black eyeliner
Mascara

A brush for packing colour (not necessary)
A fluffy, angled brush

(I don't mention any product names, since most of the makeup I used was not mine, so I don't remember which brand they were, sorry!)

1) Prime your lids. You don't have to go to all the way up to your brow, but do prime at the end of your eyebrow (see the pictures).

2) Now, take your tape and cut about 4 cm off. Lay it beside your eye, so that it goes from the outher corner of your eye, up to your brow (look at the picture, the wing is formed by the tape). Take your time when doing this, because this will completely alter your look.

3) Taking an eyeshadow brush (or your clean finger), pack on the (lighter) blue colour on your inner one third of your eyes. Try not to go above your crease.

4) Now, switch to a fluffy brush, preferably a slightly angled one (I would not use my finger for the rest of the look). Pick up the purple colour, and place on the outer two thirds of your eye. Don't spread it out, and don't go above your crease.

5) Using the same brush, pick up your pink colour, and, very carefully, start forming your wing. The tape takes care of the lower wingline, but you have to take care of the upper line yourself. Blend the pink colour slightly into your crease.

6) Again, with the same brush, pick up your purple colour and darken the wing a bit. When your wing is the way you want it to be, pick up a tiny bit of the darker blue colour, and carefully deepen the lower wingline (I hope you understand, if not, study the picture. You should be able to see that the wing is pink on the upper line, then it goes purple, and is a bit blue on the lower line).

7) Blend your eyeshadow. Take care not to blend up, and don't overblend.

8) Now you should have your shadow ready, so it is time for some lining! Use the glitter eyeliner on your upper lashline, but take real good care not to get any glitter in your eye! Then, use your regular eyeliner on your lower waterline. I chose to only go about half way in, so I wouldn't take the attention away from the shadows.

'

9) Curl your lashes, and apply mascara. You're done!

'

So, do you like it? Let me know, and please try it out if you have the chance!

'

Yours,

Miss Diorista

Back to School: Fresh Makeup for High School

I got the idea yesterday to start a short series of "Back to School" posts. This first one is about makeup for a girl in high school (can of course also be worn by older girls/women, as well as to work), but you can be expecting a post on cute school supplies, fun lunch ideas and recipes, and maybe I'll do a tutorial on natural and school appropriate makeup for girls junior high (I didn't wear any makeup to school when I was that age, but I guess the times are changing!).
'

This is the first tutorial I post here, and since I'm still kind of getting used to this whole thing, then I don't really feel comfortable about uploading a full-face picture of myself on the internet just yet. Please understand :) I don't rule out sharing that kind of pictures later, but for now I'm not quite up for it. You do get to see my eyes, though ;) I also tried taking pics of my lips (pics of lips... lol ;), but my camera always kind of blurred them out, so you couldn't really see anything.

'

But on to the makeup!

'

Products used:

Make Up Store, Cover All Mix, the lighter shade

YSL, Radiant Touch, in shade 2

Benefit, Erase Paste, 01 (fair)

Dior, Pressed Powder, Transparent Light

Dior, Diorskin Nude Natural Glow Sculpting Powder, 020 Beige Praline

Benefit, Hoola Bronzer

L'Oréal, Blush Minerals, 20 Soft Mauve

MAC, Paint Pot, Rubenesque

MAC, Eye Shadow, Satin Taupe

Clinique, Cream Shaper for Eyes, 103 Egyptian

Sisley, Kohl Eyeliner, Snow

Eyelash curler (mine is from Fabiani)

L'Oréal, Voluminous, Carbon Black

Guerlain, Liplift (it is a lip colour base)

The Body Shop, Lip Line Fixer (a clear lipliner)

Maybelline, Color Sensational Lipstick, 148 Summer Pink

'

Your 6 easy steps:

'

1. Start with a clean (and moisturized, if you wish) face.

2. Conceal and Brighten.

Brighten up your inner and outer corners with the Radiant Touch. Blend well. Then softly accentuate the shape of your lips with the same product. Blend away from your lips (so that you don't wash out your lips). Conceal your under-eye area with the Erase Paste (blend very well by tapping lightly with your finger). I like to cover the redness on my chin and nose with a redness fighting concealer (like the Cover All Mix), and I do so by lightly warming the product on my finger, then blending well. You can skip this if you don't need it.

Now set your concealer (that means your under-eye area, your nose, your chin and any other areas which you covered with a concealer) with a powder. I'm using a pressed powder by Dior. I also use this to control the shine on the top of my forehead.

3. Foundation

You can use a sheer foundation, or a tinted moisturizer, but for this look I'm using a powder foundation by Dior. It is a compact and has three shades (a foundation, a sculpter, and a highlighter). They can be used seperately or together. It comes with a brush, but I bought a small sponge for it to get a bit more coverage, since this foundation is very sheer (and therefore ideal for school). I apply my foundation, then a bit of the sculpter on my cheeks (I'll also be using a blush). Finally, I use the highlighter on the bridge of my nose. (If using a regular foundation, you can skip the sculpter and highlighter).

4. Contouring and blushing

Using an angled brush (like the MAC 168, I'm using one by Fabiani), pick up a bit of the Hoola. Tap of the excess, then lightly contour your jawline, holding your brush really far back for feathery strokes. Pick up more bronzer, then contour the sides of your face (take care to blend the product very well outwards, into the roots of your hair, for a natural look). Now pick up a bit more bronzer again, and contour the top of your forehead. Use the rest on your brush to lightly bronze your chin or nose. Finally, contour your cheekbones (my fave, lol!) by picking up a bit more bronzer on your brush, then sucking in your cheeks and applying the product with the brush in the hollows of your cheeks, using circular and feathery strokes. With all bronzing and contouring work, you always want to be careful to pick up a tiny amount of bronzer each time, and using light strokes. You can always add more bronzer, but it is difficult to take it off. Be careful!

Now it is time for your blush! The blush minerals by L'Oréal come with a small brush, but I find it useless, so I just use a regular blush brush. Just use what you have. Since this blush comes in loose powder form, I simply put a bit of it on the back of my hand, then dip my brush in the powder, tap of the excess, and then apply it to the apples of my cheeks, blending outwards. This blush has a bit of gorgeous shimmer, which really makes your makeup looks so fresh and pretty.

5. Eye Makeup
A lot of girls don't wear eye shadow to school (they think it is too much drama, or they don't have time), and if you're one of them, then just skip this step (or just put on mascara). However, if you have three minutes, then you can do this very simple and neutral look. It really accentuates the fact that you have eyes, lol!

Apply the paint pot on your lids (I use my finger for it...). You can use one layer, but I like two, just so that everything stays the whole day, and also because I really like the beautiful colour of Rubensque. Then, with a regular eye shadow brush (mine is from The Body Shop, and it does a decent job), apply Satin Taupe all over your lid. You can make it a bit darker on the outer corners if you wish. Now pick up your eye liner (you should check out Clinique's Cream Shaper for Eyes in Egyptian, it is an amazing colour!), and draw a fine line on your upper lashline, but only go half way (or a bit less than half). That means your inner eye is liner-free, which gives a natural look. Line your lower lash line about 1/3. Try to keep the line thickest at the outer corners (you can even flick it out a bit, if you want to). That will give you the illusion of bigger eyes. Now pick up your white eye liner, and line just the inner eye corner. Blend well (but be careful, your eyes are a sensitive area!) so that is looks more natural. This really makes you look more awake, and I need that in the mornings! Finally, curl your eyelashes (if you wish) and then apply your mascara.I don't know why the lighting looks so different in the two pictures, but as you can see, this look is very neutral when your eyes are open.

6. Lips

I don't like having to reapply my lipstick a thousand times throughout my day. I'm too busy for that! So for me, it is an absolute necessity to use a lip colour base, and a lip liner. I really like using a clear lip liner, since it goes with every lipstick I have! Using a base and a liner for your lips, really makes your lipstick last a whole lot longer. After that, apply your lipstick. I love the shade Summer Pink (148) by Maybelline, it is such a bright and fun take on pink! If you want you can top it off with a lipgloss, but I'm skipping the gloss today.
'

Wow, that was long! Medals for those of you who actually read it all, lol! Once you get the hang of it, this only takes about 15 to 20 minutes. I really hope that you get some use out of this. Don't forget to comment, and if you want further information or reviews on any of the products used, then please let me know in the comments!

'

My best regards,

Miss Diorista