Beauty, Daily, Photos, Reviews

Make Up For Ever goody bag

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Look at my eyes in that photo above. I posted a photo of my crazy lashes on instagram (@spiffykerms) and everyone commented asking me if I was wearing falsies. I wasn’t. Quite frankly I am somewhat afraid of gluing something so close to my eyes. With my luck, I’d have one eye glued shut, and the other false eyelash somewhere up on my eyebrow. Now, that would be a sight hey?

That’s where my Make Up For Ever obsession comes from. Their Smoky Lash mascara which you can get at any Sephora stores.

I got a goody bag which was given to me after attending the Make Up For Ever event with Madonna’s make up artist. Remember that? No? Here’s the re-cap in case you missed it.

I’ve decided to focus this blog post on two of my most favorite things in the goody bag.

Make Up For Ever Aqua Cream in shade 05. You can use this on your lips or cheeks. I have no idea how to apply it properly to make it look good on my lips, so I just keep it for my cheeks.

Then, Make Up For Ever Uplight, which is a face luminizer gel.

It doesn’t look like I used a lot. But that’s because the first few times I pushed my index finger in the cream pot a little too hard, got a lot of product and ended up putting it on my face. Thankfully it was the weekend and I didn’t have any place to go. So I walked around our apartment with these too-bright glowy cheeks for the day.

I learned that less is more, especially with this product.

Lindsey, the Make Up For Ever rep I’ve been dealing with (and finally met!), says that this is one of her favorite Make Up For Ever products and that it’s so very underrated! I so agree.

Same goes for the Uplight Face Luminizer gel.

Why do I try to pile it on, before testing it out on a small patch on my cheek? Again. It was the weekend, most likely the same day — it was like flashlights beaming from my cheeks that day. I was home alone, not to worry. Scott was away that weekend in the states for a race. I have no shame.

I now know how to apply these. You have to make sure it’s subtle. It’s why it’s in a small container. Because you use much less than you think you need, and that way it’ll last you years!! Y. E. A. R. S. I’m not lying. I don’t know how I’m going to get through this pot of blush/lip thing

My next on things to try from Make Up For Ever:

5 Camouflage cream palette (a bunch of concealers)

Have you ever tried anything by Make Up For Ever?

What is your favorite make up brand?

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Daily, Photos, Reviews

Make Up For Ever Rouge Artist Natural Lipstick

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My all time favorite mascara is the Make Up For Ever smoky lash. Sometimes I pair it up with the Bare Essentuals Buxom lash to make my lashes even crazy longer than they already are, naturally. I know, be jealous. But now my favorite mascara company ever: Make Up For Ever, recently launched their summer collection which included new items called Rouge Artist Natural Lipsticks.

I’ve been playing around with a lot of lip products with actual color to them, for a couple of months now. I don’t know why I never used any lip products before. But I think it’s because I never really focused my makeup to my lips. Sure they’re not as gargantuan as I would like them to be. But I do like them, and would never want to be as mouthy as Angelina Jolie’s lippies.

I was always a lip balm kind of girl until I was first introduced by all of the lip stains and glosses found in my beauty sample boxes that I subscribe to each month. What a great marketing ploy on their part. So because of that, I’ve now gotten into putting a dash of color on my lips on a regular basis and quite liking it! I’m branching out of my makeup routine and even layering stuff on my lips to see what kind of effects I can get out of it. It’s fun! Why did I wait so long?

Rouge Artist Natural Lipsticks.Make Up For Ever Rouge Artist Natural Lipstick in shade N5 and N10.

I’m so glad I got pinky nude colors to work with. Though, I’m sure with the formulation that these are made out of, that the bold colors wouldn’t be that hard to work with. They glide on so easily, almost like lip butters or lip balms do on the lips.On the left is N5 Nude Beige, on the right N10 is called Iridescent Copper Pink.

Here they are swatched in natural light outdoors, I was a little goose-bumpy. On the left is N5 Nude Beige, on the right N10 Iridescent Copper Pink.

I know this a bit weird to just show my lips but I didn’t’ want anything else distracting from it. So here are the colors on my lips: On the left is N5 Nude Beige, on the right N10 Iridescent Copper Pink.

I’ve been sportin’ these bad babies a number of days of the week and bringing them to work with me to re-apply. People have been comparing these Make Up For Ever Rouge Artist Natural Lipsticks to Revlon’s Lip Butters but better. I haven’t purchased any of the Revlon lip products but what I can say for sure about these  Rouge Artist Natural Lipsticks, is that they’re not drying on my lips at all. It was something I was a little worried about at first, because I tend to think that all lipsticks dry out lips. Not these ones. You can either apply them sheer, or add more layers to give a deeper color.

N5 Nude Beige. So natural looking right? It’s a lighter, more peachier toned than my lips.

N10 Iridescent Copper Pink, is just like I had eaten a pink popsicle. That’s what kind of color I would describe it as. It’s a great color if you don’t want to wear nude.

They have a great shine but sometimes I also put a gloss over top to make my lips look extra shiny. The colors themselves aren’t super sheer, as they may seem when swatched on my arm.

Check them out on my lippies for yourselves! I think these lipsticks are great for newbie lipstick wearers such as myself. Not too out of the box, but right smack in my comfort zone. I have lip color on, but it’s a nice natural color. However, there are some pretty bold colors in the collection.

Check out the 50 shades available on Make Up For Ever‘s site.

The Rouge Artist Natural Lipstick retails for $22 CDN or $19 USD and are now available at your local Sephora. They are part of the Make Up For Ever Spring/Summer launch but they’re not limited edition so it will continue to be available in store after the summer!

Which color do you think you’d pick, out of the two that I’ve shown? Did you know, you can win 3 of them on my Birthday giveaway? :)

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Daily, Fashion, Photos

Real life is untouched

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Whenever flipping through magazines nowadays, it’s difficult to believe what one can achieve with a mascara. Real life is untouched, why can’t ads be somewhat “normal” or realistic looking anymore?

I mean, come on nobodies real eyelashes look 2 inches in length and a millimeter thick in diameter. It most definitely portrays unrealistic expectations. While of course it’s trying to market people to believe that it could be somewhat possible to get such looks. It’s getting out of hand and I’m tired of seeing everything photoshopped to death and having the photograph look nothing like the printed advertisement, as it’s completely changed into more of an unrealistic image.

As an example, here is Dior’s mascara ad. You will not achieve this look with just the mascara alone. No one’s eyelashes are that dense. They’re using falsies and photoshop.

Make Up For Ever recently launched it’s first international open-casting call for the Star of it’s Unretouched Ad Campaign. They were on the hunt for regular women out in the world, who would be okay with not being digitally retouched, or enhanced for Make Up For Ever’s upcoming ad campaign.

The open casting call ran from January 2 — February 1, 2012. All of the finalists’ photos were featured in a photo album on the MAKEUPFOREVERUSA Facebook page. The winner was announced on February 9 and then flown to NYC for the photo shoot. It was open for all women age 18 and over residing in the U.S. and Canada. The way the contestants entered the contest was they had to create a picture-perfect make up look, and then submit their photo to Make Up For Ever.

Waterloo’s very own Emily Zhang was selected from thousands of entries and she is now the new model for the Make Up For Ever Unretouched Canadian Ad Campaign.


See the HD Casting Call video here.

Emily was flown down to New York City and enjoyed a full day of pampering, make up application and a professional photoshoot. All make up used on Emily for this campaign were solely Make Up For Ever HD products.

As many of you use Make Up For Ever’s HD foundation, you know that it already gives a flawless complexion to the skin, and looks wonderful once photographed, thus no need to do any photoshop retouching.

 Here is the final ad that has the featured Emily Zhang, in the Make Up For Ever ad. Image courtesy of Make Up For Ever.

(click to enlarge)

Beautiful!

Emily Zhang was born in Dalian China and also lived in Australia as a child. Her family moved to Canada when she was 8 years old and lived in a few different cities until they settled in Waterloo, Ontario. She attends the University of Waterloo and is finishing up in her last term. She sums up her interests in two words: makeup enthusiast. Emily is a bit like me and you’ll find out in the YouTube video that she too, didn’t venture out into make up products until a few years ago. Emily hopes to work in the beauty industry after she graduates from UofW.

I’m super stoked that a Canadian was picked let alone someone from my neighborhood!

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