I feel pretty--NOT! THE COSMETICS THREAD

why do you think i jumped on this marvelous opportunity?
for someone who shared abundant details about her life here, it seems peculiar for her to just completely disappear

in other news i have been wearing a lot of purple eye shadow and i like it

i hope she's ok :/ but she has disappeared for long periods of time before.

tza sent me a shockingly bright coral blush a couple years ago, which i thought was an eyeshadow for a long time, so clearly i wasn't going to wear it. now that coral is trendy, i found it amongst my tiny pile of makeup and tried it - the color of the pan is so deceptive! it's actually a very very pretty coral that looks great and not horrendously neon at all.

i will confess that I have no idea how to wear blush and that I have never worn it

i think part of it is being naturally pink-faced I feel like makeup looks best when I look pale, adding red flush to my cheeks is just like, mentally, why would you want to do that when I look that way ALL the time

justine was it nars in orgasm?

No I'm pretty sure its not - its like SUPER neon coral.

I have not put on makeup for maybe four weeks now. I kinda miss it! But it just doesn't seem to make sense when I am in and out of the water multiple times a day, plus it is HOT HOT HOT and putting on makeup feels about as sensible as putting on a sweater.

Maybe I will invent a date night when S and I go to the one restaurant and I will put on makeup for that.

I'm so envious of all the swimming that's happening in your life.

otm

I was thinking this morning that I really want to go swimming. I mean, I swim at the gym but I am thinking more like "playing in the water and floating around."

I went to an aqua aerobics class and the best thing about it was being given a water belt and splashing around and floating at the end of the class.

The thing I am really digging these days is stand-up paddleboarding, aka SUP

SUP

Ya'll come on down anytime and float in the pool and/or ocean. The Sea of Cortez is really nice because it is extremely calm (not so hot if you like to surf, I guess) so snorkeling and general lolling around in the water is much easier than dealing with nonstop waves.

i wannna gooooooooooooooooooooo

snorkeling and general lolling are my FAVORITE.

I'm kind of a big baby about the ocean--like, I find the ocean really rather scary--so this setup is great because it is an ocean for scared beginners. Which is me!

Anyhow back to makeup. Once I finally get around to brushing my teeth, I will put on some lipstain in honor of you, carl!

man it makes 100% sense to me to not wear makeup under those conditions -- i sure wouldn't!
swimming sounds luscious

Lol I checked the pan and it IS an eyeshadow!! Its a stila shadow called ”mimosa”

http://media.dermstore.com/catalog/500738/150x150/29032.jpg

Just restocked on two lip colors, both the Sephora own-brand, and their perfect, unused, knife-point edges are making me so happy. I will sigh when I have to actually put them on.

A pinky gloss called Rouge Shine, and a punch of matte red called Hot Tango. Apparently.

ok, time for what I think might be a dumb question.

can someone tell me about contouring/highlighting, with regard to foundation? do any of you/all of you do this? i've been reading and watching videos and I'm just confused as to whether this is something you do for fashion shoots and/or drag shows, or if this is lady-foundation 101 and I should be getting on board.

for years I've just slapped on foundation. as mentioned up thread I've never even worn blush. I'm slowly rethinking all of that and coming to a realization that what I know about makeup is basically zero.

i need opinions plz :)

I wear foundation and blush, but only experimented with contouring a bit before pronouncing it a waste of time.. However it does look nice! My old makeup coworkers contoured a lot.

from all the youtube vids i have watched, contouring with foundation seems kinda n/l - i can barely manage one kind of foundation, let alone trying to coordinate two different shades. iirc kandee whatshername has a vid about it - altho i think her emphasis is less on contouring exactly and more about... dimension? like, avoiding getting a flat face? but speaking of: i watched a bunch of really great vids on lisa eldridge's website about foundation - lots of useful info about how to pick the right shade and how to test it etc etc.

also: i picked up some ridiculously cheap nicka k mascara at the wig store and damn it's really good!

i was wondering about contouring with bronzing powder, over foundation? or is the logic generally powders with powders, creams with creams etc

ime contouring with a matte bronzer (or blush or even dark eye shadow) is the way to go (NOT anything with any kind of shimmer in it).

I've never contoured. It seems very complicated. I don't wear foundation every day just when I think my skin looks like shit. Most days it's just just concealer and blush.

I'm w/ just1n3 - I can't imagine trying to coordinate multiple shades of foundation and put the right ones in the right place. My primary goal when I wear foundation is to even out my skin anyway.

I don't even contour with blush. I just throw it on my cheeks.

I feel like that shit is crazy unless you're looking to seriously up your make-up game for fashion photography. I mean I downgraded to a BB cream because I refuse to even use primer, I'm going going to start carrying around multiple bottles and brushes that don't fit in a pocketbook.

*not going

Do you use a separate moisturizer under BB cream? I feel like I would have to and I wonder if that defeats some of the purpose.

Oh yeah, but I moisturize as soon as I get out of the shower, and I don't put makeup on for a while (these days, possibly many hours) after that. Also I don't think the BB is anywhere near moisturizing enough, I'd have little flakes everywhere.

That's p much my routine, too.

What BB cream do you use?

Smashbox "Camera-Ready." I think it's done a fine job? It doesn't settle in my pores too badly, has decent coverage. It's also like $40 a tube while, oof. But I thought it was time for me to maybe find a grow-up product instead of drugstore ones that didn't do everything I wanted.

ok thanks ladies, I feel reassured now.

Never fear! ILS is here to make all of us feel normal against all irl messages.

thank god!

i am still on the hunt for light daywear coverage. kinda thinking I may give mineral makeup another try...I also saw that Jane Iredale has a mineral BB cream that might be worth a look.

my problem is still that any foundation just ends up feeling thick and irritating after 3 or 4 hours, even the longwearing colorstay stuff, which is great, is still irritating after a while. I can handle that for nightime going out wear, but for work it's just UGH. also putting on a full face of makeup first thing in the morning has never, ever appealed to me.

I think of contouring like in the same way I think of blush - I dont get i.to the really precise surgical-looking contouring. But I think it looks pretty good for under the cheekbone, the sides of the forehead and the jawline. You just quickly dust it along, just like blush.

But its def a special-occasion type thing - I would never bother doing it on the reg.

VG, do you put foundatikn all over your face or just where you think you need it?

all over. because the redness is pretty much all over. i'd look weird otherwise.

I am still pretty pleased with the stick foundation I tried awhile ago. I'm sort of shocked. It doesn't seem like the kind of thing I'd like? But you really can just use a very small amount to blend your face together (or a lot more if you are feeling into Mask Face), and it doesn't feel heavy at all. I do need to moisturize well when I use it, but that is pretty standard. Also the Ulta person told me to use primer under it (and tried to sell me brand matching primer) but I haven't found that to be necessary when I'm just slapping on some makeup for work.

Anyway, it's this stuff - http://www.ulta.com/ulta/browse/productDetail.jsp?productId=xlsImpprod780128

I don't know if I'd say to buy it, but if you can find a sample or something (of this or another kind of stick foundation) it might be worth trying.

interesting! I'll have to investigate that one too.

Veg, my face gets pretty red in the Ark humidity. What you need is something to counteract the redness before you think about coverage. Smashbox color correcting primer in green is exactly for this purpose (green counteracting red)and works a treat ime

http://www.ulta.com/ulta/browse/productDetail.jsp?skuId=2233970&productId=xlsImpprod3590053&navAction=push&navCount=1&categoryId=cat80020?cmpid=PSGO&CAWELAID=949668055&catargetid=1542181057&cadevice=c&cagpspn=pla

Also, smashbox halo color correcting powder in yellow will seal the deal. no more redness.

answering you're question way up thread, illuminators are strictly for specific use on cheekbones, inner eyes and the bridge of nose. places that are agreeable with reflecting light. I don't understand these foundations with illumination or brighteners because all over coverage tends to have a full moon effect. now bronzer....I'm not sure if that's the same kind of deal. never used it.

thanks sunny! green primer would be a great start, that's p genius

they dont appear to sell it on the smashbox site anymore so, like me, you might want to stock up if it works out for you

Never fear! ILS is here to make all of us feel normal against all irl messages.

oh man this is so important that i can't even begin. when someone asked on the skincare thread about eye creams, and then there was some discussion of undereye circles/wrinkles/crepiness, i spent the next x (many) hours wondering/fretting about if i had these wrinkles/crepiness and if i should feel bad about it when honestly i haven't worried about this since i was in high school. years of not-thinking about the condition of my eyes was erased in...three posts about wrinkles?

i'm just saying that these messages that YOUR FACE ISN'T RIGHT are so pervasive that years of deliberate positive thinking can wilt just like that. i feel better now, less wilted, but honestly, i never ever need to worry about whether or not i have a wrinkle because guess what
i'm gonna have a wrinkle

sorry about this -- i feel better now that it's out of my system!

Get it all out! Those messages are noxious.

I think wrinkles look really cool! I wish I could feel the same about my cellulite. But I'm working on it. Surprisingly, being in a bathing suit/wetsuit/nothing at all much of the time has made me more comfortable with my body, not less, which is an unexpected result.

that makes total sense to me! beach life sloughs all that self-consciousness away after a while, I reckon. once the beach settles into your skin, it just doesn't matter as much. and it also makes you by default more confident because you don't give a fuck. imo.

fuck I miss the beach hardcore

If wrinkles looked that cool, ppl wouldn't try to avoid them so much, but the thing is that eventually we all get older...why not start feeling ok about it ASAP?

I don't even really think I'm hella wrinkled or anything, it just kinda took me sideways that I could be so easily derailed into silent fretting about my stupid face. It was shockingly easy to start thinking that way. Awful.

Hi 5 to feeling good about yr unclothed body -- walking around with nothing on is such a great feeling that I want every everyone to feel that it's a right to enjoy it (not just a priv of the "beautiful")

Guess I wasn't done, sorry?