I feel pretty--NOT! THE COSMETICS THREAD

this 'activator' almost seemed to double as a sealant, which was the most attractive thing to me.

i am going to dream about that ysl eye pen, also.

hope you are feeling better q!

i got chanel blush (rose tweed) instead of powder.. and a primer from laura mercier. i'll see how that goes, i still have some regular old neutrogena powder to use up before i buy a new one. i like the blush so far, i don't usually wear any but this is OK, it's very very light.

all of their blushes were so lovely!

oh dear. so this morning i was doing my makeup with my nice new foundation and realized that i should probably toss all my other makeup and start over with nice, new makeup. it just does not seem fair to my good foundation to pair it with old crap. this is a problem.

good foundation/primers can oomph up the cheap stuff you put on top IMO! but now that I have Smashbox eyeshadow I could never go back to CoverGirl.

^^^^^truth

(the cant go back part) although Ive actually dissed my smashbox foundation for an old bottle of covergirl clean foundation I had and I like it so much better than any dept store foundation Ive used. Maybe its like your wardrobe - sometimes the pricey thing works for you and sometimes the cheap classic from the thrift store pulls it all together etc etc

i mean, i have been using like, nice brands (mac, clinique, nars) but it's all really old and i feel like i need a fresh start for everything.

I do love my CG foundation too! I used some of the more $$$ foundation that I mentioned purchasing, above, and it feels about the same except I feel "fancier" strictly because I know the stuff is more expensive. haha.

how did you guys figure out how to wear eyeliner? i've only gotten it right a few times. normally if i try to put some on it ends up all smudged and uneven and i feel even uglier than i did before.

it's hit and miss for me. I can almost usually fix it with a Qtip at least. It's a rare, happy nail when I nail it right away :(

i just realized i've had this compact of nars orgasm for 2.75 years or so. what's the recommended replacement timeline for blush? i love it, apparently, i just don't use enough?

daria, I'm solid on the eyeliner but it's not exactly subtle. Not sure what you were going for...?

Yeah I'm fine with cake eyeliner applied with H20 and brush, but am not as great with pencils.

Yeah D, what kind of eyeliner are you using and what kind of effect do you want to achieve? I mean I think that regardless of those variables the real answer is just that it takes practice.

I can't watch this whole thing right now, but this girl's style is in line with mine, just bigger -- I wouldn't wing it out THAT far for every-day. But I do wing. (Sorry about the ad in the beginning.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QA4u5T1SouU

I also like the style of this one, it's less about the wing and more about defining the inside corner too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ff6O-nlPv_c

I do mine with liquid and wing it a little if I'm going out but for work I just do a normal line like this (excuse my tired ass looking eye lol)

http://i54.tinypic.com/2qa2r2d.jpg

It's not perfect but I think it looks OK. That was with pencil - L'Oreal Infallible something or other.

i do mine similar to erica's - but a little thicker. i pull the skin next to my eye taut only very slightly and then line from the outside towards the inner corner. it NEVER looks good on its own; i go back over with a matching eyeshadow to fill in all the little gaps and smooth it, and then i use a soft round-headed blending brush and a softer brown to blend it into the crease.

Oh I also pull very slightly taut and go outer to inner corner.

I don't pull because then I you let go, the creases of the eye wouldn't lie normally. And I use liquid. I tried to get photos but they all came out really really fuzzy and now I can't figure out how to send them to my own email, sorry for being a spazz!

haha I had to take that shot like 4 times because it was fuzzy. I think I was trying to take them too close up at first. I alternate pencil and liquid - I used to use mac fluidline but the brush thing was just harder for me to handle.

Also different angles of wing work for different people, which is why that tutorial with the lines and angles and stuff is helpful. Depending on where your eye creases, certain lines will look fine with the lid closed but not work at all with the eye open, so you do have to experiment.

How do you guys feel about liner on the bottom lids? I basically never do it because a) I think it makes my eyes look smaller and b) when I do do it I feel like I'm wearing tons of makeup. Maybe I'm missing out on some good looks and should try it. Idk.

I used liquid eyeliner w/ no shadow for years and it always looked pretty much perfect with this seemingly sloppy method:
1. put concealer on eyelids - this helps make removing excess liner easy and also makes the line razor sharp (not all jagged and smudgy)
2. pull eye taut from outer corner
3. apply liner thicker than you want it from the inside out. Don't worry if its all wonky.
4. before the concealer dries, get a q-tip, place it at your inner part of your eyelid and try to drag to the outer part of your eyelid in a straight line.

The natural shape of your eye actually causes you to not go in a straight line and you end up with a perfectly lined eye.

On the bottom: I don't put color inside on the waterline, it just ends up in my eye and I'm not interested in that. But I do like putting it under the little lashes. For this area, I use loose powder on a dense, straight line-shaped brush, and press it right up under and into the lashes, dab by dab.

I do the same with the bottom. I also like using the darkest of the eyeshadow shades im wearing instead of black.

It's def more dramatic, better for evening. It can kind of wash me out if I'm not wearing bright colors or don't have something else going on, because I'm pale with no color in my brows and my lips are naturally very faint, too, so basically my face has no contrast. So I would have to balance out the under-eye make-up with bright clothing or jewelry, but I do it occasionally.

I've gone back to powdered white eyeliner, but this time I'm using a wet brush to apply it, not a dry one like I was using earlier.

Thanks all! I guess I am looking for something subtle. I feel really ambivalent about makeup in general.. if it's obvious makeup, I feel like on me, it looks dumb! tbh when going out if I actually try to do the makeup thing eg eyeliner/mascara/shadow I usually have some kind of bug out about it looking silly and then can't leave the house.

I apparently have too light a hand with makeup. Makeup that I think looks too garish on me looks too light to everyone else.

I think if you are not used to seeing yourself with makeup, the contrast between the mirror & your mental self-image makes you think you look garish. But I highly doubt any of you infrequent makeup wearers look like Divine or something when you do wear it.

I'm not an infrequent makeup user--I've been wearing it practically every day since I was 12.

I did my eyeliner the triangle way instead of with big wings! Probably no one but me would notice that it's different, but I feel different. And actually it was a lot easier to get the sides the same. Recommend.

Wait what's the triangle way?!

This one!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ff6O-nlPv_c

Went to Mario B counter at L&T and bought two things. Came out of there with SEVEN samples in addition to my purchases! Those people are nuts, in a great way.

i broke down and subscribed to birchbox!
but now i have to wait til june to get my first box :(

What is Birchbox?!

~intrigued~

Got a NARS gloss pencil thing last weekend and it may be the best lip product ever. Just FYI.

https://www.birchbox.com/

$10/month gets you a v v pretty box of 4-5 product samples.
what a genius way to get people to pay for samples that should be free! hah. i am a sucker.

That looks pretty good! Sucks that you have to wait til June. I might not be in the States for that many more months otherwise I'd probably give it a go.

xp There were subscription (grocery) sample services in the Seventies, but those were scams to get you signed up to junk mailing lists. I'm assuming that this is a little different, though.

totally stoked - apparently they shipped me a may box so i don't have to wait til june :)

!!!

I am gonna do this, I think.

I wonder if I could still get a May box. Might just wait a couple weeks so it doesn't seem like too long a wait.

birchbox is pretttty. the wrapping is so nice and luxurious. the packaging is super well-done.

i got a stila eyeshadow, bulgari perfume sample, a travel size hand cream, and a travel size bar of some fancy soap. plus some other marketing cards/offers. from a business standpoint, i'm so impressed by this company. it's so genius. i will need to see if i can tweak my preferences a bit because i think i said i'd be open to trendy things and this eye shadow color is def trendy (mimosa!) but i don't know if i will ever be able to use it.

nice! i knocked my stila palette off the counter this morning and all the shadows just shattered into dust. i almost cried.

;_;

oh noooo :(

scoop them up. add a few drops of alcohol to make a paste, smush them back into their holes and let dry.