My Tattooed eyebrows!!!

Divas. Divas.Divas!!!

Here are my 2 weeks old newly tattooed eyebrows!!! I am sooooo proud and happy that I did it. I do not regret it at all! I have to be honest with you and tell you that it hurt just a tinsy winsy bit but hey, beauty is priceless and painless!!! Note: I do.NOT.have any eyebrow pencil on! I only applied concealer under the line of the eyebrow. I went to PERMANENT MAKEUP CLINIC in Virginia (click on the name). Ask for Shirley, she is great!!! She used the hair stroke on me and that’s why they look so natural…

So, if you ask me again if you should get yours done, my answer is YEEEESSSS!!!!

XoXo

eVaDiVa

Eyeliner…or the art of precision…

 

I have been thinking for a long time to write a post about eyeliners as I realize that they are as important as your eyeshadow when finishing a makeup look. Eyeliner is actually the only thing I wear on my eyes (besides masacara of course) whenever I am running late for work…and that is pretty much every day of the week…

So, to get my eyes perfectly lined, my favorite liquid eyeliner is the MAYBELLINE WATERPROOF LIQUID, I love it for 2 reasons: 1-the tip of the brush gives you a very precise line and 2-the eyeliner will not run… it is really waterproof!!! I also like using MAC Boot black for the same purpose but just because it’s not waterproof, it’s not my first choice…

If you are looking for an edgier eyeliner look and are in no rush when applying your makeup, use the fluidline from MAC with an eyeliner brush like MAC brush # 266. Please be careful when drawing the line and do not worry if you end up looking like Amy Whinehouse at first…it takes practice . The fluildine is also the best eyeliner to use on top of your false eyelashes.

Now for your inner eye rim (under eyeliner), please DO NOT USE a liquid or a fluidline!!! Stick to a pencil.

My favorite is a kohl pencil like MAC SMOLDER. I love it and used to wear it everyday until MAC introduced the TECHNAKOHL LINERS!!! I have each and every color of them and believe me, they are the BEST khol pencils around (graphblack and Auto de blu are must have!). Now I won’t lie and tell you that if you spend the night with it it will not smear…because it will, like any pencil. However, I have compared it to the regular MAC KOHL as well as BOURJOIS and LAURA MERCIER and still prefer it to the other two! I heard that MAKEUP FOREVER carried a good one but have not tried it yet…will let you know if it works better…until then, make sure Graphblack is in your makeup bag!

XoXo

 

NARS EYESHADOW ***GALAPAGOS***

I was browsing the NARS aisle at SEPHORA and totally fell in love with NARS GALAPAGOS eyeshadow from the EXOTICA SUMMER 2008 COLLECTION. Galapagos is a chocolate/ bronze color infused with gold pigments that looks just amaaazing on women of color or just about anybody looking for a tasty bronze look. I tried it on my bare eyelid (yes NARS shadow are so pigmented you don’t even need a base…) and loved it!  I will create a bronze look once I get out of my work week-induced stupor…

In the mean time, make sure you get one…along with AMBER LIGHTS from MAC…I can’t wait to show you what I come up with!!!

DID YOU KNOW?

NARS was created by Francois Nars, a french make-up artist in 1994. Nars is an “island-lover” and name most of his products after the most beautiful places he visited in the world: Tahiti, Marrakech, Bora Bora etc. He also owns an island in the French Polynesia and gets most of his inspiration from spending some time there… “Motu Tane – Project Nars – is one of the 118 islands of French Polynesia scattered like confetti over the turquoise waters of the South Pacific” (telegraph.co.uk)

Wow! You learn something new every day…and people say beautinimous (no…it’s not a real word…) interests are superficial…:-)

 

PERMANENT MAKEUP…

Hello Divas,

 

I can’t believe I have not posted anything the whole weekend…please forgive me…(pretty please…)

I had a faaabulous weekend where I partied the night away on Saturday with some friends…and had a hard time waking up the next morning to go to my girl’s Amayel Birthday party (She is very old now…”Ste Catherine”)! I would have posted pictures but I think I looked a hot mess…had my eyebrows perfectly shaped of course but did not wear any eye colors. I also kinda over did it on the blush RAIZIN…happens to the best of us…lol…Even make-up junkies and “experts” sometimes feel lazy…

 

So I wanted to talk about permanent makeup today. This topic is controversial but I wanted to give you my opinion as I’d love to hear yours.

 

 

 

EYEBROWS:

I personally think that getting your eyebrows tattooed is a good thing if:

1. you know of a very good place to get it done, and
2. you are sure that you won’t want to change the shape of your brow later

 

You should throughly research you “tattoo” parlor, I have been looking for places and asked around and so far, the only place in the DC area that I could potentially trust is “The permanent makeup Clinic” in Virginia. I checked their before and after pictures and it seems like they are doing a pretty good job…I am still not 100% sure that I will get them tattooed but I will send Amayel to get hers done first and then we will decide from there… J

 

EYELINER:

 

I think getting your eyeliner tattooed is not such a great idea.

1. It will probably hurt as hell
2. What is the point if you have to put eyeshadow on top? You will end up having to line it again with some real liquid liner…

 

LIP CONTOURING

 

This can be a good idea if you have very small lips and want to draw a permanent line around to make them look bigger…It is not the best thing for women of color as we usually naturally have beautiful lips J Furthermore, having a dark line around your lips that does not blend with your lipstick is just the worst thing!

 

BEAUTY MARK

 

Having a beauty mark “ a la Marylin Monroe, Madonna or Cindy Crawford” can be sexy…just remember not to over-do it by making it look like a mold…the smaller, the better…

 

Now if any of you Divas already had permanent makeup done,, please share with us your take on it…and if you can recommend any good places all around the world, I am all ears open…

 

XoXo

 

eVaDiVa

 

Spring is almost here!!!

Spring time Divas!!!…at least almost…

 

FACE

Foundation: Select SPF 15 NW45

Powder: Mineralize Skin finish Dark

Concealer: Select Cover up NW 45

Blush: Format & Raizin

EYES

Eyebrows: Spiked and Show off brow set

Eyebase: Cream color base Improper Copper

Eyelid: Chrome Yellow and Electric Coral (pigment)

Crease: Orange and Bronze

Outer Corner: Embark

Highlighter: Arena

Eyeliner: Blacktrack and graphblack

Lashes: MAC #33

LIPS

Liner: Mahagony

Lipglass: Sock Hope (Heatherette)

 

 

 

No crease or asian eye makeup???

This tutorial will be very useful if you feel like you do not have an eye crease or have Asian eyes. 

“College Road Trip” or “when concealer goes wrong”…

I just came back from the movies and could not wait to get behind my computer to warn you about this: NEVER USE A CONCEALER THAT IS WAAAAAYYY TOO LIGHT FOR YOUR COMPLEXION!!!

The movie itself was just ok, it wasn’t Martin’s best movie…and I was kinda expecting that but what really disappointed me was the fact that the movie production could not find one good makeup artist in Hollywood!!! Com’on, it should not be that hard! (The MUA name is Margo Boccia, she has a pretty impressive resume but I don’t know what happened here…). Raven Symone and Kym E. Whitley’s makeup looked sooooo bad I had to write about it!!! They both had a concealer that was at least 4 shades lighter than it should have been and Kim’s false lashes looked like they were about to fall…I could not find pictures that would accurately portray the disaster but if you happen to go see the movie, you will know what I am talking about…

Most people think that a concealer is supposed to be lighter than their complexion and they are totally wrong! Concealers are supposed to “brighten” your under eye not “lighten” it!!! This means that you should use a concealer that looks as natural as possible. If you have dark circles, it only makes sense that it should be slightly lighter than your foundation but then again, you will still need to blend it with your foundation so you do not see this white area under your eye. Remember that the best way to blend it is by dabbing the concealer with your fourth finger.

Here are 2 pics of my girl Halle Berry. The one on top shows a perfectly blended concealer and the one at the bottom shows you how bad a light concealer can look when it is not blended. No disrespect to my girl Halle, I know she doesn’t do her own makeup…

Purple eyes…using pigments

I got a new hair cut last week and felt like adorning my eyes done with bright colors…I used a pigment that I bought during my trip to NY last month…Some of you asked me how they could use pigments, so this is right on time!

Pigments are a loose form of high pigmented eyeshadows. They can be very messy if you do not know how to use them but here are a few hints:

• Use a flat brush like MAC # 242
• Appy a base first on the lid(otherwise it will not stay on). My favorite are the cream color base or the MAC eye paint.
• Put a little bit of powder on the lid of the jar and work from there.
• Apply the powder using your 242 brush by dabbing and gently putting pressure on your lid to make sure that the color pops out. Add more color if you feel like it is not bright enough. Remember that the eye color base you use can significantly enhance the final color, so the brighter the eye color base, the brighter the pigment color.

I am using on this picture:

FACE

Foundation: Mineralize Satin Finish liquid NW 45

Powder: Mineralize skinfinish natural Deep Dark

Blush: Slave to love and Raizin

EYES

Eyebrows: my usual spiked mixed with some show-off brow set

Eye base: Cream color base Full Fuchsia

Eyelid: Pigment Cool Pink

Crease: Trax and Nocturnelle

Crease outer corner: Beauty Marked

Highlighter: Concealer NW 35 and a touch of Vanilla Pigment eyeshadow

Eyeliner: Blacktrack and Smolder

Lashes: Mac # 7 (my lashes look dusty because I “smartly” decided to apply more of the pigment eyeshadow after putting them on…never do this as all the pigment will fall on your lashes…always use your mascara when you are sure that you are done with your eyeshadow)

LIPS

Velvettela lipliner with Florabundance lipgloss (make sure you blend the liner with the lipgloss to avoid that horrible dark line around your lips…)

Silver smokey eyes

At the request of one of my beloved readers, I am detailing the eye makeup I was wearing at the “Makeup, stilletos, Martinis & Chocolates” party.

Eyebrows: Spiked pencil and show-off brow gel

Eye base: Shell cream color base

Eyelid lower part: electra

Crease: Knight Divine

Crease outer corner: Carbon

Highlighter: Concealer select moisture cover NW 35

Eyeliner: Blacktrack and smolder

Eyelashes: MAC #33

 

Using eyeshadow as a blush…

I made an experiment this morning as I was rushing out the house to go to work…I realized that my makeup case was still in my trunk and did not have some of the products I needed for may daily makeup. I usually don’t use that much makeup to go to work but I need my 7 basics (is that a lot?!?) :

• Studio fix powder
• Spiked eyebrows pencil
• Select cover up concealer
• Fatal Mascara (Lancome)
• Black eyeliner
• any lipgloss that I can find…
• BLUSH!!!!

So I had everything but the blush…I found an old eyeshadow around from MAC called Cranberry that I mixed with passionate (it’s a dark bright pink almost like sushi flower) and used a little bit on the apple of my cheeks and guess what??? I am loving it more than my Raizin blush!!! Well I still need to see if it does not look to light on pictures…but so far I think it works pretty well…

So if you ever lose your blush or just don’t have one, try one of the bright red-pink eyeshadow you have…

XoXo

eVaDiVa