The makeup blog with your daily dose of beauty inspirations, makeup tutorials, product reviews and shopping deals!
Nail Tutorial: Striped Turquoise and Teal Nails with Pink Acrylic Bow accent
Step 1: Paint your nails a base shade of turquoise or aqua. I used China Glaze’s For Audrey.
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Step 2: Next you want to have some striping tape. If you don’t have any, you can either do it free-hand if you don’t mind lines that aren’t as straight, or cut scotchtape into strips.
Nail Tutorial: Summer Garden at Midnight
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This is a nail look featuring both powder pigments, and stamping. Feel free to swop colors and stamp designs according to your taste!
I got my stamping plates from a local beauty supply store and it has no brand so I’m afraid I can’t exactly tell you where to get the exact same thing.
However, any butterfly and floral design will work, so just use what you can find, or use a tiny art brush to draw free hand flowers and swirls on if you have a steady hand!
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Getting the Look: Following the sequence of the pics above!
1. Paint on 2 coats of black polish (or until opaque)
2. Paint repositionable glue (or nail foil glue) onto half the nail, from the tip upwards. Then once it dries from a milky color to a clear tacky finish, use a dry brush to dust and pat on a shimmery pale green pigment, fading from the tip halfway inwards.
3. Top coat and let dry, before you start stamping. Just about any design will look nice, as long as you pick a coordinated color for stamping. I used Konad’s Pastel Green Special Polish. Just pick random designs you like and place them on your nails. You don’t need to follow my order or placement! (If you’re getting Konad, the m21 has very similar designs.)
4. Let set for awhile before sealing with one more layer of top coat to protect your design.
For stamping supplies, you can visit bundlemonster.com, naildelights.com, lightinthebox.com, konadnailart.com, konad.com.sg, Amazon, and eBay!
Etude House Correct & Care SPF30 CC Creams (Quick Review)
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(Quick note to say sorry I’ve been a little busy the past few days so I haven’t had the time to take a look at all the messages or reply to them yet. I’ll get down to it as soon as I’m able!)
I’ve always known Korean budget brand Etude House for their cute packaging and nice nail and lip colors, but I admit I’ve never been tempted to try their skincare or base products.
The past month while the hubby was in Seoul, one of the surprises he came back with were these 2 tubes of Etude House’s new Correct & Care CC Creams. I was immediately curious because these are like the Revlon Bare Naturale tinted moisturizers from awhile ago. They come out white, but when you start rubbing it into the skin, tiny globes of pigments get mixed into the base, and the CC Cream “adjusts” to a skin-toned shade.
Both of them look equally white until you blend them out a bit.
Texture
Like most BB and CC Creams, these have very low coverage. They just impart a bit of glow and even out the skintone.
Etude House CC Creams are better for slightly dry skins as well. They go on quite moist and stay very dewy-looking, which is great if you want that look. But I don’t think it will work well on combination or oily skins.
A “Jelly Lip” Summer: Layering Lipstick over a Gloss Base
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I seldom apply gloss over lipstick because I find it makes everything thick and heavy feeling, and causes lipstick to smudge, fade, and wear away unevenly. On its own, Gloss usually has so little color that one shade looks like any other.
So I do the jelly lip.
This isn’t some amazing trick obviously. I just apply lipstick on top of a gloss base to just add some pigmentation without taking away the sheen and “jello-like” translucence. You also get the lightweight feel of a gloss with slightly better lasting power.
This is another quick way to stretch those bright lipsticks that you don’t quite dare to wear out!
Some favorite combinations are above. Try a:
And it’s not hard to maintain. A couple of hours in, if you need to touch up some shine, just apply more gloss. You don’t need to touch up with a slick of lipstick until after you eat or drink something.
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P.S. Lip Care
Someone sent me a message asking about lip care and how I keep my lips smooth and line-free. Well I don’t naturally have many visible grooves or deep lines in my lip so I can’t give any advise about it. But grooved lips are beautiful; look at Angelina Jolie. Don’t worry about what’s naturally yours (grooved, lined or not) and just keep them in the best state they can be. This means not flaky, cracked or chapped.
Mine do get flaky and chapped actually. Usually after I try on a new product and develop a sensitivity to it. You don’t see them cos I obviously don’t do any lip-related posts on those days when my lips are extremely sore!
Revisiting: The Creamy Salmon-Pink Lip
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Want a color that pretty enough for Spring, but still bright enough that it’s not a wishy-washy pastel?
This is something that showed up on the catwalks about 2 years back, but is still gorgeous today. You take any fuchsia pink or coral you have, and you mix it with a flesh-toned concealer shade. What you get is a highly-pigmented salmon-pink (fuchsia lipstick) or milky-peach (coral lipstick) that takes on a bright pastel hue and really pops against your skin.
Perfect on a sunny day OR as an alternative to the usual nude lip with smoky eyes!
Catwalk Trend: Sequinned Eye Makeup a la Chanel (Ideas and Tips)
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Chanel seems to have a yearly love affair with Sequins and sparkle. Last year, they went minimalistic and split a single round pailette and stuck it onto models’ lower lash lines, then loaded on the mascara, a warm tawny blush, and natural-looking lips.
This year, they loaded on large-sized hexagonal glitter flakes along the entire lash line and then stuck a few more onto lashes for effect.
I don’t personally find that the most flattering and comfortable look to wear (honestly it looks like a bit of a mess, but who am I to argue with high fashion?), but here are some ideas if you’d like to try the more toned-down look, which I absolutely love!
It’s a great way to jazz up your look for a party without having to do a whole lot of makeup. Read on for tips and tricks!
