I feel pretty--NOT! THE COSMETICS THREAD

yes!!!! 1000 x yes!!!

i tried some mineral make-up today after my facial (which was great! o_O) - la bella donna brand - it was really nice! i didn't buy any because i had to see if my skin reacted, and it didn't! tbh i don't think my skin wants any make-up on it, but sometimes it is nice. so maybe i will go to bergdorf's or wherever and buy some when in nyc next week :)

blake lively is at this party i am working tonight and she looks so lovely. her face is like -- it glows. i want to try and find her and talk to her but i fear my face isn't holding up as well. i made time to apply makeup mid-day and i actually look really nice even tho i feel like a mess but not compared to her.

i mean that she looks nicer not that she looks like a mess. she is like a more bodacious barbie, that girl. i want to go shopping with her!! and try on benefit makeups!!

aaw! :D

Okay, I just got my lashes professionally tinted. It cost $27, which probably means I won't do this too often. Right now I look like I have been on a four-day coke and Southern Comfort bender but the nice lady said it will look better tomorrow after I wash my face (I'm not to wash it until tomorrow morning. She actually suggested 24 hours, but that is so not gonna happen). I will report back with final results tomorrow.

She also waxed my brows, so my eyebrows are bright red and my under eye area is the darkest black so I pretty much look like Heath Ledger as The Joker right now.

omg!

can't you use toner under your eye or something!

ps how do yall use concealer - do you put it all over your eye or just under? i recently started putting it all over the eye and it looks 100% better

i put it all over so i look less tired and also i think it functions as a nice base for eyeshadow.

otm, otm

I was in for the night so I didn't care too much what I looked like. Anyway, I washed my face this morning and everything that wasn't supposed to be there washed off. It looks pretty good! Really natural but definitely there (at least to me). This totally wouldn't work on its own for folks who wear mascara on the regular, but I like it on me. I look forward to Laurel's report on the DIY tint kit because at $27/pop for a pro job, DIY seems like the way to go. Plus then I could do it on a weekend morning when I wasn't planning on going anywhere and leave it on for the recommended 24 hours without washing my face.

Oh, I don't know how long it lasts bc the woman who didn't wouldn't say! Weird.

Oh, sometimes I put concealer all over, depending on how rushed I am or how tired I think I look.

i think the DIY one you only keep on for like 20 min or something.

Even better!

Concealer all over how? Like, all over the lid plus the entire under-eye area? This is a new one on me and I want to try it.

Tza otm, good grief! The DIY kit is like $25, did I mention that already?? Waaaiting for it to get here...from Australia....

yep, esp the inner eye, but all over the undereye area and upper lid

concealer should be worn all over the eye. Makes for very very easy correction if eyeliner or shadow goes wrong
Pro tip: always use concealer around the sides of your nose and always use highlighter on the inside corner of yr eyes

Neutrogena's 3-in-1 Concealer For Eyes is designed to be worn all around the eyes (it's a combination concealer and eye cream). That and Aveno's tinted moisturizer (all around the eyes, yes) is what I wear.

I needed a new look for my eye makeup. I remembered the person upthread (can't remember the name, sorry) who combined white eyeshadow with gold eyeliner, so I went to my small stash of bargain bin makeup buys and took out some pale pink matte from Revlon (Pink Innocence). I brushed it all over my eyes from brow to lash and brushed a layer of the white I'd been using earlier as an eyeliner. Then I added the gold powder eyeliner and mascara. It looked great last night under the bathroom lights, and I'll see what it looks like in daylight in an hour or two when I put my makeup on for work.

i am using the neutrogena atm. have repped for it on here before! it also contains spf but does not burn/sting.

how far down your nose, sunny?

I had a look at various concealers today and was told to consider a 'corrector' - heavier duty, I guess? I'll check out the Neutrogena.

I did used to put concealer around the sides of my nose (sides of nostrils) but then I switched to a 'brightening' type under-eye product. I used it instead of concealer, but actually maybe it's supposed to go on top of concealer.

A color corrector? They always seemed a bit unneeded for most people.

(Oh, and the new eye makeup looks great in sunlight, however, I think this look requires curled eyelashes. I'll see if I can find mine tonight.)

No, it's basically still a concealer as I understand it - but the guy in the shop called it a 'corrector', meaning I think 'those circles are going to need a heavy duty product'.

shop people can be such jerks.

What brand is it?

Bobbi Brown Corrector. I just looked at the reviews on makeupalley and people love it for the most part. And yes, they all say they have particularly bad circles. I think I'm going to invest.

Yeah the BB is supposed to be really good.

I also need

- new foundation with some of that light-diffusing business (been using Prescriptives Real Camellia for about 15 damn years)
- a new eyeliner, probably a gel, that's 1. doesn't immediately smudge and 2. is a *soft* black or vv dark brown (considering Bobbi Brown Caviar gel)
- a new blusher that doesn't make me look sick when I wear it with black like Orgasm sometimes does.

I'm the kind of sap that's easily duped into the high end of the market, so any low-end recs on those very welcome...

we still need to go to sephora (or maybe bloomingdale's? they're right near each other in friendship heights.. the department store people usually know their stuff better, i think)

i could use some kind of.. either a different foundation, or powder or some kind of primer or something to stop my face from getting too shiny. i'm not really sure what to do, i like the tinted moisturizer i use right now but it can get shiny. feeling kind of dumb here. i never really learned how to wear makeup.

Totally not low end, but I just bought my first Bobbi Brown product last week - blush in Tawny 2 - and I love it. The color is perfect and it's got a lot of pigment in it so a very little goes a long way. The last thing I need is to develop another high end make up brand loyalty but dag. This stuff is nice.

Daria, maybe a primer? I think some folks here have good recs on that.

I have new favorite foundation: Laura Mercier powder foundation. It is somehow ten times better than Mac's Studio Fix powder foundation, and I had loved that for many years! Pricey but I bet it will last 8-12 months with more-or-less daily use.

For concealer, I've been using Benefit's "Stay Don't Stray" eye primer, which is supposed to go *under* your concealer. But it seems to do some light-reflecting/dark circle diminishing on its own, so that's how I'm using it. Very easy to blend. I also use it around the sides of my nostrils.

daria, do you wear powder?

I kind of want to start wearing foundation or some kind of face meakeup – something I have never done bcz (minorly gross revelation?) I have v flaky skin, esp on my nose & forehead. Which, foundation just accentuates hugely. There is really no way to get around this, is there?

there is!!! its a moisturizer that is p cheap called compound 15! if you put that on before makeup, you will never flake again

sorry its actually called comPLEX 15

:O

The secondary worry is that, not ever having worn foundation, I will look like a 13-year-old girl putting it on for the first time. I will call my sister for help with this one. I am p sure she will love getting asked to do her job for free (just kidding, I usually send her a gift card or something when she helps me out w/cosmetic concerns).

http://www.amazon.com/Complex-15-Therapeutic-Moisturizing-Lotion/dp/B000056KK0

i've totally given up on foundation until i am willing to spend $$$ on it: it just seems to look like paint on my skin, totally unnatural and gross! it looks okay under certain lights, but then i live in a paranoid state that i'll be under neon lights and ppl will start pointing and laughing at me for looking like a clown.

ooh quincie i may have to try this laura mercier!

The makeup that I think looks garish on me looks too light to everyone else. I've realized that I can't judge myself on this.

One thing I've never been able to understand: I was allowed to wear whatever type of makeup once I reached the age of 12...everything, that is, except powder. I was considered too young to wear powder all through my teens even though I was wearing everything else. I've never been able to understand that. Can anyone else figure this out?

Weird parents?

Older parents? But I've never been able to find any reference to face powder being considered particularly adult in the Thirties or Forties when they grew up. So I don't know.

Thirties *and* Forties, I should say.

parents always think their kids' skin is perfect and beautiful and does not need to be f'ed up with foundation and powder, maybe thats it