Beauty: How I Apply My Concealer and Foundation

Here is a tutorial (in photos) of how I apply my concealer and foundation everyday.

1. I start with clean but already prepped (toned and moisturised) face:

2. Next is color correction. I use an orange/ peach hued color corrector from Inglot's Freedom System to counter the dark circles around my eyes and then a green one for the red patches on my cheeks and chin. I apply by using a concealer brush and use my fingers to blend the corrector in.

Peach to counteract dark circles

Green to negate redness

3. After color correction, that's when I apply my foundation. I use Inglot's YSM foundation in the shades 41 and 48. I use the lighter shade to highlight and the darker to contour.

Highlight

Contour

This is how it's gonna look like before blending:

4. Using a Stippling brush, blend, blend, blend!

Blend, blend, blend and some more!

Here's how it looks after blending:

5. After I do my eyebrows (you can see the tutorial here), curl, and swipe mascara on my eyelashes, it's time to define my face even further. I use Ben Nye Luxury Powder in Banana to set the lighter foundation and to further highlight and I use a Mac Studio Careblend pressed powder in Medium Deep to set the darker foundation and to add contour.

Second Highlight

Second Contour

6. After applying my blush, I proceed to set my entire face with loose powder. I use BYS Loose Powder in Medium.

That's it! Here is the complete make-up look right next to the no make-up one:

Before and After

And here's the complete look with my hair done:

Easy peasy right?

Small but Wonderful,

Monica

How To Create Bold but Natural Looking Brows

I am no stranger to compliments but lately, I've been getting a lot of compliments for my eyebrows. Yes, my eyebrows. A while ago, the lady who shampooed my hair was singing praises for my eyebrows.

motd: before going to church

In all fairness, I've been obsessed with eyebrows since my Tita Gladys plucked and shaped mine in my second year of high school. So in the 10+ years of eyebrow enlightenment, I've picked up a few tricks. I've learned that if the eyes are the windows to the soul then the eyebrows are the fancy drapes you hang on them. I found that even with just a wince of makeup, if you have great brows, you will still look very put together. So I've made it a mission every morning to always get my brow on. And you should too. So I'm sharing to you how I create my eyebrows: full but still natural looking.

For my eyebrows, I use these products:

Mac Brow Set in GirlBoy, Suesh Angle Brush, Anastasia Beverly Hills Dip Brow Pomade in Chocolate

Of course, you start out with a clean set of brows. I usually do my eyebrows before applying any make-up but I already have my face on before I thought of doing this tutorial. For the sake of the tutorial, I just wiped off my eyebrow makeup with my trusty make-up remover -- Bifesta Bright Up Cleansing Lotion. 

You will notice that my eyebrows aren't exactly neat and there are a lot of strays. Here's the thing, because bold and full eyebrows are the in thing right now, you don't really have to do a lot of upkeep. I rarely do. Anyway, let's move on.

I dip my angle brush in the pomade to pick up a little product. Be careful not to load too much on the brush especially if you're a bit heavy-handed. Too much product will create dark and harsh lines resulting in unnatural looking brows and we wouldn't want that. You want just enough. Anyway, you can just build it up if you feel that you're eyebrows are still a tad bit too light.

What I do is I trace the shape of my eyebrows first.

And then I fill them in.

Don't forget the other eyebrow.

Once that's done, I finish up with the Mac Browset in GirlBoy.

You will also notice that the shade of my brow gel doesn't exactly match my pomade. The Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow Pomade is more of a chocolate-y brown while the GirlBoy is more golden. I use the GirlBoy shade to lighten up the chocolate-y-ness of the Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow Pomade to achieve a much more natural look. 

So voila, we're done. Sometimes, I put highlighter underneath my brows but I only do that when I have eyeshadow on. The highlighter underneath the brows will also hide any mistakes you may have made and conceal stray hairs.

Here are the results:

Tada!

You might also have noticed that I have shorter hair in the last picture as compared with the first one. I just had a haircut. That's where my eyebrows got praised recently and thus, inspired me to do this blog tutorial. I had my hair cut at Menage Salon located at the ground floor in Trinoma mall by Ryan. Look for him, he's amazing and most especially nice.

I couldn't tell you where to buy the Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow Pomade because it was a friend who ordered for me. I did get it for P1,200. Yes, it's pricey but definitely worth it. I got the MAC Brow Set in GirlBoy at the MAC store in Eastwood Mall for P1,000. However, you can get it cheaper if you purchase it from a legit online store. 

Anyway, there you go. I hope you liked my tutorial. Thanks for reading.

Small with Wonderfully Wonderful Eyebrows,

Monica

Review: Bifesta Bright Up Cleansing Lotion

My sister can attest to this: The effort it takes for me to put on make-up every morning is indirectly proportional to the effort it takes me to take off my make-up. Yes, I'm the laziest. I hate washing my face at night. I don't know why. I think I overexert myself during the day that when I come home, I just like to cozy up to my pillow and fall asleep. But because of the fervent warnings from my sister, I know my bad habits will catch up to me soon so I decided to look for a make-up remover that's no fuss and no muss. I think I found it in Bifesta Cleansing Lotion.

The Bifesta Cleansing Lotion comes in three variants (I think). I chose the bright-up one. All the reviews I saw on the internet talked about the two other variants and they all wrote that they wanted to try the "bright up" next. Being the nonconformist that I am, I tried the "bright up" first.

The Bifesta Cleansing lotion is really no fuss and no muss. It's very easy to use. Damp a cotton pad with the thing and begin wiping your face. That's all there is to it. I've read that it takes four damp cotton pads for other users but it only takes two for me. I think the reason behind that is I don't really use heavy make-up every day.

My everyday make-up look.

I only wear NuSkin's Tinted Moisturizer in Honey, my favorite (but now phased out) Maybelline Concealer in a shade so much lighter than my skin tone, BYS loose powder, Maybelline's Great Lash Washable Mascara in Blackest Black, Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow Pomade in Chocolate, MAC Brow Set in GirlBoy and lipstick from either MAC or Inglot Cosmetics. I'd amp up my make-up from time to time with Essence's black liquid eyeliner but that's it.

I'm happy with my purchase of the Bifesta Bright Up Cleansing Lotion. At P419, it's actually quite affordable but when you think about it, a little pricey considering many reviews complain that it'll only last them for about 1 and a half months. Then again, the Bifesta Bright Up Cleansing Lotion leaves your faces too clean and too soft that you can forgo washing your face with a cleanser. I do (because I'm lazy but it doesn't mean you have to be like me). I guess you save money from not finishing your cleanser faster.

Using the Bifesta Bright Up Cleansing Lotion leaves your face feeling fresh and soft after application. I love that I didn't break out after. As for the brightening effect, I don't see it yet but I'll give it more time.

I also use the Bifesta Bright Up Cleansing Lotion to clean my make-up brushes but that's another story for another day.

Do I recommend the Bifesta Bright Up Cleansing Lotion? You bet your asses I do.

Sleeping with a clean face tonight,
Monica

Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with the manufacturers and distributors of Bifesta Cleansing Lotion and they didn’t pay me a single Pepe* to endorse Bifesta Cleansing Lotion and its other products..

The Bifesta Bright Up Cleansing Lotion can be bought in all Watson's and other leading department stores nationwide.

*Pepe is Jose Rizal’s nickname and Jose Rizal is the image in a one Philippine Peso coin.

Beauty Haul: Divisoria

Last Sunday, I was tasked to brave Divisoria to scour for monopods. I wanted to go to Divisoria anyway to visit the nail art store but striping tape seems too shallow of a reason to invest all that time and effort; so when a more important reason came along, I was more than happy to oblige.

Coming from church and we just had Mother's Day lunch, I was too tired that I took a nap. When I awoke, it was already 5pm. I rubbed my eyes, tousled my hair, and went to Divisoria hoping that traffic wasn't so bad and the stalls were still open. Long story short, I made it.

I only brought a reasonable amount of money so I wouldn't overspend. I spent more than half of that on the monopods and I was left with only 500 pesos.

One of the monopods

I wasnt really sure where the nail art store was. I just knew it was at the second floor near the escalator. I passed by three escalators before seeing the store. And the lady was already in the process of closing up. Good thing this is Divisoria where it was really important for them to make a sale. Here's what I got:




2 in 1 Nail Art Pen in Black, White, Gold and Silver (25 pesos each)
2 Rolls of Nail Foil with Adhesive (buy 1 take 1 at 100 pesos)
2 Rolls of Nail Striping Tape (50 each)

All in all I spent 300. Can you believe how much they charge for the tape outside Divisoria? P120! UNREASONABLE!

Watch out for my review of the Nail Art Pens.

Small But Wonderful (and incredibly stingy),
Monica

posted from Bloggeroid

Nailing It!

I joined the nail art craze over a year ago but due to the surmounting stress in my life, I wasn't able to pay much attention to my nails anymore. It is only recently that I rekindled my passion for nail art. I am no expert but let me show you some of my designs.

A Simple Dotticure

Bumblebee

Quirky Floral

Rawr!

Nails Fit For Royalty

Grey on Yellow

Purple Daisies

Feathers and Dots

I wish I knew how to video myself painting my nails so I can show you how I did them. But don't worry, they're not at all hard to do. As long as you're creative enough, you'll be able to pull out much more creative designs than these. Remember, practice makes perfect. Don't give up. Your hands will stop shaking if you do it frequently enough.

Small but wonderful,
Monica

PS. If you're asking how do I find the time to paint my nails, I'm incredibly lucky in my job. The hours are insanely good!

posted from Bloggeroid