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Taylor Swift Makeup Tutorial

Jessica May — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:48:45 +0000

Taylor Swift is one of the many famous young artists who has truly developed her own sense of style, which many girls want to emulate. She has become known for her quirky attitude, fun floral dresses, and a fairly signature makeup look. Whether you are a fan of her music or not, you have to admit that she always looks stunning and polished. This tutorial will show you how to create an everyday full-face makeup look like Taylor’s. Step 1 The first step for this makeup tutorial is to prep the canvas, your skin. Taylor is known for having dewy, youthful skin, so start with a light tinted moisturizer or BB cream. After you have applied this to your face using a makeup sponge or brush, take a cream concealer and apply it to your problem areas, acne, and under your eyes. Step 2 To finish up your skin, apply a shimmery highlighter to the tops of your cheekbones. This will make the angles of your face stand out and also make you look more awake and healthy. Then, take an angled bronzer blush and apply a shimmering bronzer in a triangular shape right underneath your cheekbones. This will create Taylor’s slightly bronzed, dewy look. Set this look by applying a layer of translucent powder all over your face. This will make your look stay put! Step 3 For eyeshadow, keep it simple. I used a shimmering bronze cream shadow and simply applied it all over my lid, from the lashline to the crease. Then, I used a white powder in the inner corner and on the browbone to add definition. Step 4 The most important component of Taylor Swift’s signature look is her dramatic eyeliner. To emulate this, you will need an angled eyeliner brush and a pot of black gel liner. To start, you need to tightline both your upper and lower lashline. To do this, lift up your eyelid gently with one finger and use your other hand to drag the eyeliner brush underneath your lash line. Those of you who are uncomfortable with touching your eye might have issues with this at first, but you will get used to it after a few tries. On both the upper and lower lashlines, the black liner should extend from the inner part of the eye all the way to the outer corner. Once you have tightlined your eyes, take the same black eyeliner and smudge it into your lashline on your eyelid, which will make your lashline look even thicker and add drama to the look. Finish the eyes with a healthy dose of black mascara and you’ll be perfect! Step 5 To finish the Taylor Swift makeup tutorial, we are going to create a slick, berry lip. To do this, prepare your lips with a lip balm or Vaseline to get rid of dryness and flakes. Then, I like to use a lip stain, like Benefit’s Benetint. Apply the stain to your lips with a few strokes of the brush and you’ll start to see a beautiful berry hue. Cover this with a coat of clear gloss, and you’ll be ready to record country music and date a member of One Direction! Let me know what you think of this Taylor Swift Makeup Tutorial in the comments below!

This article is originally from Make Up Mew - a blog with authentic makeup reviews and tips!

Mac Melba Blush Review

Anna Yang — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 17:43:12 +0000

There’s a reason why Mac Melba Blush is one of the most popular Mac blush for the fair of skin. It’s a pretty light, pink brown with a touch of apricot; completely matte for that understated polished look. It doesn’t scream orange like Mac Peach or Mac Fleur Power, but adds a touch of orange to the cheeks. With Mac Melba, you get pure color intensity minus the distracting traction of glitter which may fall everywhere or worse- highlight your flaws. Think Melba as your best friend; one that you can keep adding more of (build that color woman!) until you decide it’s enough and leave without feeling bad or risk looking like a clown. She does a good job enhancing your good points like your high cheekbones. She can also make you look incredibly sweet and approachable when you put her higher on the apple of your cheeks. Don’t over-extend her though, because Melba is no pushover. You’ll regret trying to make her do more than cheeks. No, bronzing is not her forte, so forget about applying her on the temples, cheek bones or neck or chin. It will just look off. Melba is a specialist. She just doesn’t like being outside of her comfort zone. In other words, know her limits. To me, Melba leans too much onto pink to take it to the next level. Melba is great for all skin types including oily and sensitive skin sisters. She is fragrance, oil and paraben free. Melba is a great day everyday blush that could work for range of looks from subtle to playful. You can wear it with almost nude, minimalist, polished look or team her up with bold peacock eyes. Melba’s flexi that way but not as a bronzer as mentioned. Melba is a blush, is a blush, is a blush. Pros: Matte, intense color Long-lasting Buildable color but you don’t have to wear much for it to show Oil, fragrance and paraben-free formula Hard to screw up a look with this natural-looking blush Cons: Off when used as a bronzing color Doesn’t show up on dark-skin tones

This article is originally from Make Up Mew - a blog with authentic makeup reviews and tips!

Rainbow Eyeliner Tutorial

Makeup Mew — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 17:05:50 +0000

Sometimes you don’t feel like the average, everyday eye makeup. Especially for a special occasion, it’s fun to experiment with color and play around with makeup! This rainbow eyeliner tutorial will teach you how to create a dramatic and fun eye makeup look, perfect for Spring! Step 1 Start off by covering your eyelid with a matte nude eyeshadow. Since the lower lid will be the focus of the look, we want everything else to be simple. If you don’t happen to have a matte eyeshadow, concealer or foundation will work perfectly. To prepare your lower lid for the eyeliner, take a small concealer brush, dip it in foundation, and apply it into your waterline. This creates a base for the colorful eyeshadow and helps it stay put. Step 2 I chose to use colors reminiscent of a peacock feather, so for this look I used blue, green, teal, and purple. However, you can use whatever colors suit your fancy! Take an angled eyeliner brush and dip it in your first color, in my case purple. Apply it from the inner corner of your eye to just a little bit further in. Use the brush to apply the color both on the waterline and to smudge it a little bit further down so that the color is more visible. Continue this step with 3 – 4 different colors until you have reached the outer corner of your eye. Don’t be scared to blend the colors as this creates a cool watercolor effect. Step 3 To further accentuate the eye, use the same eyeliner brush to apply a black gel liner to your upper lid. For a dramatic look, pull the color all the way from the inner corner to the outer corner of the eye. Don’t be afraid to make the liner a little bit thicker than you would for a natural eye as this makes it look more dramatic. Step 4 To finish the look, apply a white cream shadow both to the inner corner of your eye and to your brow bone. This makes the eye pop. Just add a coat of mascara and you are ready to go! To finish the look, I usually apply a nude lipstick so that the eyes are the focus. This makeup look is perfect for a night on the town with friends. Don’t be afraid to have fun with colors and experiment with what looks best on you! About the Author Jessica May is a college student and blogger who is always looking for new ways to stand out in the crowd. She started experimenting with cosmetics at a young age and has continued to be passionate about the subject throughout the years.

This article is originally from Make Up Mew - a blog with authentic makeup reviews and tips!

Bourjois Intense Extrait Eye Shadow 02 and 05 Review

Anna Yang — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 16:31:43 +0000

Bourjois eye shadows have been around for some time but this is their first eye shadow boosting an intense 16 hour hold. It is hard not to love Bourjois’ quirky round case for all their blushes and shadows. Their old shadow casing used to come with a bottom deck to stow away eye shadow applicator. With Bourjois Intense Extrait, you’ll get purely eye shadow in a mirror compact. This is a good thing as it makes it less bulky for travel. Made with 87% mineral pigments, Bourjois Intense Extrait has more coverage than their classic line of eye shadows. That means that you don’t need to pile on a lot of it to show. The eye shaow comes in a lovely raised dome, much like their baked smokey shadow trio collection. 02 is a sparkly champagne color with micro gold glitter that melts seamlessly into bisque skin. It’s really pretty as a stand alone shadow or as highlighter. I often use it under the eye rim and the inner corner of the eyes to brighten up that area. I find the glitter help distract from dark eye rings too which is a bonus. 05 is a pretty peacock green. It’s really intense and you don’t have to wear much of it for it to show. It’s a dark green that you can do elaborate smokeys or go solo with. Either way, it looks exotic and compliments brunettes or redheads exceptionally well. I like wearing 02 and 05 together, 05 on the top of the lid and 02 as an under eye rim liner as well as a tear duct highlighter. Intense Extrait colors are really versatile as they can double as liners with the right brush. The Bourjois duo-ended baked eye shadow brush is perfect for packing eye shadow densely for maximum color pay-off. There are two ends to this brush- one for smudging and the other for outlining. I use the smudge (brush) end for 05 on the top lid and the outline (tip) end for 02, on the lower lash line. Both colors last really long. With Bourjois Intense Extrait Eye Shadow 02 & 05, I find there’s really no real need for shadow primer as the colors stays on for the entire day. I haven’t really tried them on for 16 hours but they do wear for at least 10 hours without creasing or smudging. You can pick up colors easily with the raised dome. I experienced some shadow fall out when I apply very thickly so remember to tap off the excess before applying. Then again, primer might do the trick. Overall, I love the little round pots and the mirror is a nice touch. Pros: Very long-wearing Intense colors Cute, little round pots with mirror Value for money- as a little goes a long way Cons: None really, unless you need freebies like sponge applicators a little shadow fall out for thick applications.

This article is originally from Make Up Mew - a blog with authentic makeup reviews and tips!

Sugarplum Fairy Makeup Tutorial

Makeup Mew — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 15:02:36 +0000

Hello everyone! My name is Emily Jane and I normally write for The Glitter Vixen but I’m super honoured to be writing this guest post for Makeup Mew today. For this post, I thought I’d try out something a little new and do a makeup tutorial. I have called my look “Sugarplum Fairy” because the two main products it centres around are the Benefit Sugarlicious Lipand Cheek Kit and the PixiGlow Fairy Face Palette. The look features pink eye makeup, which I find a lot of people are quite worried about wearing. I think concerns about pink eye makeup stem from people being concerned that they might look like they’ve got pink eye which is perfectly understandable! However, I love wearing pink eye makeup and with my tutorial today, I wanted to show that pink is a perfect every day colour and a great alternative to your usual beige and browns so often featured in day appropriate looks. The first step to this makeup look is to create a lovely dewy fresh faced base. First, I apply Loreal Lumi Magique Primer all over my face to illuminate it. I then follow this with an application of the N07 Beautiful Skin BB Cream as this offer a nice level of coverage but still leaves that nice dewy glow we’re going for with this look. I conceal any blemishes with Benefit’s Boi-ing Concealer and then brighten my under eye area with the Loreal Lumi Magique Highlighting pen. Next, I move onto the cheeks. The first product I use on my cheeks comes from the Benefit Sugarlicious and it’s called Benetint. It’s recommended that you use three streaks on each cheek and then blend as desired, but as I’m quite pale, I find that just one streak on each cheek is quite enough. I then go over the Benetint with the Sugarbomb blush. I finish my cheeks off by blending a little High Beam highlighter on my cheekbones. So, that’s the face finished. Now it’s time to move onto my eyes. I used the first three colours featured in the Fairy Face Palette to create my eye look. I use the lightest shade to highlight my brow bone, while I use the lovely golden brown colour all over my lid. I then take the pink shade in the palette and add it to my crease and the outer corner of my eye, as shown above. I then take the Rimmel ScandalEyes Eyeliner in nude and apply it to my waterline, as this really makes you look bright eyed and awake. I finish the eyes off with a lick of mascara, currently, I’m using Rimmel ScandalEyes. I prefer black mascara over all others but I imagine that brown mascara would work wonderfully here too. Of course, no look is complete without lipstick so after prepping my lips with a scrub and a balm, I apply some lipstick straight from the bullet. My favoured lipstick for this particular look is Topshop’s Macaroon, a lovely soft coral toned pink. So, there’s my Sugarplum Fairy Makeup Look! I hope it has inspired you to embrace pink makeup if it has something you’ve previously avoided, or given you new ideas if you don’t shy away from pink normally. Thank you for reading! Bio Emily Jane is a 21 year old style, beauty and lifestyle blogger from Yorkshire. Since she started blogging, she has fallen head over heels in love with beauty products, makeup in particular! She loves to experiment with new looks and is constantly falling in love with different products. Read her blog at TheGlitterVixen.com

This article is originally from Make Up Mew - a blog with authentic makeup reviews and tips!

Lush Drive Lipstick Review

Anna Yang — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 13:05:56 +0000

Lush Drive Lipstick is a pretty, shocking deep purple liquid lipstick made with natural waxes and oils. The color is rather true to the bottle, it’s a purple on the pink side with blue undertones. I imagine this lipstick would fit any health-conscious fashion diva perfectly. The color is really trendy and fun. If I feel like grabbing more attention on a particular day, I’d always whip out Drive to go with a loud piece of clothing and Voila! Headline lips alongside complementary hipster apparel. Drive would fit just about fit any complexion, but I find it to be particularly stunning contrasted with raven black hair. The indigo in black hair really brings out the blue hues in Drive. Lush Drive taken when I was two shades fairer on a downcast day Having recently, dyed my hair brown, the purple in Drive gives a different effect. Drive looks warmer. Also note that I’m wearing a darker foundation here. Drive is pretty lasting. Drive lasts for 3 hours with normal eating and slurping and the color stays strong. Drive has a lip stain effect. When it wears off, it leaves a dark pink stain, which is nice.The formula is rather viscous for a liquid. It feels great because it’s not waxy like lipstick but the formula sticks onto the lips. I find that I can easily skip the lip liner with Drive as it does not migrate once it’s a little dry. Blotting after application is necessary to set the color in place. Be assured of high color pay-off with Lush liquid lipsticks. I love that this lipstick uses Jojoba oil, Rose and Candelilla wax. Be aware that Lush’s stuff isn’t all natural as there’s synthetic dyes and colorants in the mix. Ferric Ammonium Ferrocyanide sounds poisonous. It’s a a synthetic colorant and turns into gaseous hydrogen cyanide when it comes into contact with water. If you watched Skyfall, you would know that it’s used by MI16 agents as a suicide pill. (Apparently, hydrogen cyanide failed to kill him, just melted the left side of his facial skeleton.) Shouldn’t be a big problem if it’s minimal. The glass bottle might be a pain for most ladies but it sort of appeals to my inner hippie. If Lush could make their applicator recyclable, it would be perfection for the earth-loving hippies all over the world. Pros: Great vibrant color Wear time- good, leaves a stain after it disappears Short ingredient list Cons: Not the most practical packaging Ferric Ammonium Ferrocyanide— Poison???

This article is originally from Make Up Mew - a blog with authentic makeup reviews and tips!

Lush Charm Lipstick Review

Anna Yang — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 17:12:24 +0000

Let me start off by saying that I like LUSH a LOT. Knowing that they started producing their own colored makeup, Emotional Brilliance, was like finding out Walt Disney now makes Star Wars. Just like every other Lushie, I was over the moon ogling at all their cute apothecary vials of vibrant colors. Not until I opened my little bottle of Charm. Any prior excitement was transformed into disappointment when I opened the vial to find a plastic rod drenched with pink liquid. Where did the doe-foot applicator go? I had to go back to exchange for a new one. It’s very important to check the tip before you buy their Emotional Brilliance range. Charm is a lovely Sakura light pink— a baby doll, cool toned pink. It’s the kind of nude pink to pair with dark smokey eyes like MAC Creme Cup and Real Doll. On the lips, Charm is a milky, chalky pink, very much on the opaque side. Great for going Gyaru or doing a Nicki Minaj look. Although, the closer color for Minaj’s lipstick will be Lush’s Glamorous, a true bubblegum pink. It can well pass as a natural blush or nude lip. Lush Charm lipstick formula is also thicker and drier than their other lip colors so be sure to scrub and moisturize your lips prior to using. I made the mistake of wearing it before doing so and it emphasized flakes on my lips. Not an appealing sight…enough to invoke a curious dude-are-you-ill look from concerned folks. Lush Charm’s lasting power on the lips is around 2-3 hours with licking and eating. It’s not as lasting as the redder colors in Lush’s Emotional Brilliance range. While It lasts longer than most hydrating lipsticks, it’s not as lasting when compared to Lush’s spectrum of colors in their lipstick range. I think it has to do with the zinc and titanium oxide blend to make it the product more opaque. As a cheek tint, Lush Charm is a charm to use. The oils make this more blend-able than Benefit’s cheek/lip stains as they take a little looker to set. You’ll have a little bit more time to set your blush tint. As a blush, it looks lovely on light, neutral to cool skin tones. Charm’s rather pigmented and stays on the cheeks for 4 hours which makes it a great blush base. Topping over with pink powdered blush would prolong the wear time. The real deal sealer for me is their really short ingredient list. Lovely conditioning oils and waxes are used—Jojoba oil, Candelilla and Rose waxes. Sure, there’s two sythethic dyes and unpronounceable Fluorphlogopite but other than that, all looks garden nice. Would I buy Charm again? Maybe, I’m smittened by how well this works as a cheek tint but not so much on the lips as it is rather drying. The glass bottles, while pretty to look at, aren’t that practical for traveling either. It does make me feel more like a Wicca-dabbling witch though.

This article is originally from Make Up Mew - a blog with authentic makeup reviews and tips!

Stila One Step Illuminate Illuminator Review

Anna Yang — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 15:12:42 +0000

As long as you’re a visual creature, you’ll have to agree that Stila is rather avant garde when it comes to product packaging. Stila One Step Illuminate Illuminator, as well as their other products in their ‘One Step’ series, was one of the few products that caught my eye once I entered Sephora. This tri-tone swirly whirly product, suspended in clear gel looks like human DNA strands. It looks impressive in a clear plastic pump bottle. Perhaps Stila One Step Illuminate’s DNA design possesses unassuming hidden powers. Next thing I know, I was forking out $36 at the cashier it despite having no need for another illuminator. Other than rendering me utterly defenseless, One Step’s hypnotic spirals of Light Gold, Pale Pink and their bestselling eye color, Kitten, stunned me with its subtle illuminating effect. While I appreciate that its iridescence doesn’t chart off the roof, I do find it rather pointless. I don’t feel that it does much other than making my skin look pinker and darker. Each color supposedly does a different function: Light Gold highlights skin, Pale Pink warms the complexion and Kitten brightens and illuminates. One pump dispenses all three colors at once. Applying the serum into the skin feels pleasant. its formula is as light as soufflé which makes application enjoyable. There is no fragrance so it does smell a little weird, but not repulsive. I actually like skincare products without perfume. The formula contains their patented Arclay for sebum control. I have oily skin and I wore the One Step Illuminate as a primer as instructed. Oil broke through my foundation about 4 hours after application which is pretty decent but not spectacular. One Step Illuminate has quite a few skin conditioners like vitamin E, A, Hyaluronic acid, minerals- zinc, magnesium, potassium, lysine, ginseng, gingko, chamomile and Japanese green tea extracts. Another brownie point for this product is that it makes matte foundation less matte. If you’re looking to make your current matte foundation look less flat, perhaps this could be the primer for you. The minuscule sparkles reflect light and brings a little more dimensionality to the face. I do think it helps with warming up the skin tone and making you look more glowy but I have skin tone compatibility issues with this product. (Left) Without One Step Illuminate (Right) With One Step Illuminate Each pump deposits too much Pale Pink which makes my yellow skin look one or two shades darker with the product on. That means I’ll have to adjust my foundation shade or limit it to areas where I apply my bronzer. I wish I read a review before buying this, as it sure cost me! If you like looking tan and have a pink skin tone, this product could be a nice all round primer/bronzer. As much as I love the product design, texture and subtle illuminating effect, I don’t think I’ll be buying this illuminating serum again.

This article is originally from Make Up Mew - a blog with authentic makeup reviews and tips!

Dior Diorskin Shimmer Star in Rose Diamond Review

Makeup Mew — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 17:25:56 +0000

Notes from Editor: Happy Holidays everyone! The vibrant Whitney from Wands and Pliers has kindly offered to review one of the most coveted blushes by Dior on Makeup Mew. Be sure to click through to her website for fabulous pictures and neat product reviews! When I made my first plunge with Dior Diorskin Shimmer Star in Rose Diamond, I knew this product would become the jewel of my collection. This is a light pressed powder with five colours that can be used as a luminizer to highlight cheekbones, but it can also be used as a blush that gives your cheeks the most perfect glow. The packaging of the Diorskin Shimmer Star is exquisite to carry around. Dior definitely knows how to package their products and make it extremely appealing to mass makeup consumers. The compact is put inside a soft velvet pocket. The downside is that dust covers the velvet fabric easily. The compact of the luminizer is similar to most of Dior’s packaging- with the dark blue case and DIOR written on the front. The letters “CD” are also on the case, sort of “underneath” and can be seen under light. Beautiful, chic design. Within the compact, there is a mirror and a palette of 5 different of colours of shimmering pressed powder. From left to right: pearl, pink, mauve, soft plum, pink. It looks very shimmery, but don’t be feared! Once applied on the skin, you don’t look like a disco ball, but in fact, the shimmer brings out your cheekbones. The pearl colour can be used as a highlighter for the nose ridge and brow bone. The colour is sheer, but easily buildable to give you a radiant glow. The formula is very light, so it does not feel heavy on the skin at all. For the cheeks, I like to use an angled brush and blend the colours (using mainly soft plum and pink) and apply it to the apples of the cheeks to the temple. You can change the concentration of the colour by choosing the different colours in the palette. The Diorskin Shimmer Star is a great multi-functional product-it can be used as a highlighter, blush, or even an eyeshadow! However, the price point is a bit high- CAD$45 for 0.35g, but if you want to do a splurge, I highly recommend this for an all natural, radiant look. It gives you a great sheen that makes your face simply glowing! About the Author: Whitney started blogging in February 2012 and loves to write about beauty and food. She studies engineering, but her passion lies in writing and expressing her voice through her blog. Check out her blog at Wands&Pliers.

This article is originally from Make Up Mew - a blog with authentic makeup reviews and tips!

The Body Shop Christmas Collection 2012 Vanilla Bliss Body Butter Review

Makeup Mew — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 17:05:22 +0000

Notes from the editor: The lovely Irene from Blushing Loves has agreed to review The Body Shop Christmas Collection 2012 Vanilla Bliss Body Butter on Makeup Mew. Do click through to her blog at the end of the post for a great wealth of product reviews written in both English and Greek. You’ll love her blog as much as I do! I am a huge fan of The Body Shop Body Butters and even huger in everything related to vanilla scent! I love almost anything that’s sweet and has a vanilla scent.This is the new Vanilla Bliss Body Butter that The Body Shop created for holidays season collection and it’s a limited edition. The package is the same as the rest body butters with a vanilla flower on top! Cute that they kept it simple, yet elegant! It offers hydration for all skin types and it contains 200ml. But into the real thing! I adore the scent that this one has— a subtle vanilla scent with a hint of vanilla chocolate! It’s not spicy like the last year’s TBS spiced vanilla, it’s not as warm as the TBS Vanilla body lotion. More of a soft-warm-sweet scent… if I can put it. If you are a vanilla lover like me, this body butter won’t let you down. It will give you much joy, remind you cakes full of vanilla and bring much pleasure to the people around you! Whenever I put on this body butter, everyone says to me that I smell so lovely. As much as try to restrain myself, the “beauty blogger” comes out that I need to recommend this… The fragrance is long lasting and becomes even softer as it fades, but it’ll still there. As it is for all skin types, it’s not as thick and heavy like shea butter or coconut, but it hydrates perfectly and absorbs quickly! I need hydration in Winter, but I prefer my body butter to be absorbed in the minimum amount of time so that I can quickly put my clothes on! Yep, I’m chilling… If you “heart” vanilla scents, I highly recommend this one, as you are going to be the “sweet center” of holiday parties!! About Irene, author of Blushing Loves: Blushing Loves is a blog that I created to express my addiction about make up and everything beauty related! I love writing about my thoughts on products I purchase so that more people will have a clue of what they are going to pick before giving their money away! I hate times when I purchase something that I’ve lusted after only to have it stay in the drawer… People close to me, seeing how much time I spend doing this for free, tell me that I’m insane! But that’s me, and I’m not going to change! Blogging at Blushing Loves is something I love doing!!

This article is originally from Make Up Mew - a blog with authentic makeup reviews and tips!