MAKEUP TIPS How to choose the right foundation

Drugstore Makeup Basics~ How To Choose The Perfect Foundation

On 27th June 2017

In Beauty, Life, Tips for Makeup Artists

I’m presuming that if you have landed on this post then you are among the many women that walk into drug stores across the land looking for the perfect foundation. And feel overwhelmed by the vast selection of cosmetics on offer!

It is overwhelming! The cosmetics industry is massive and growing all the time! Sometimes it would be nice, like most things in this day and age (oooooh how old does that make me sound?? eek!) if things would pause, let us take a breather and catch up with it all.

That’s not going to happen though, so I’ll talk more generally about foundation, a tricky one to get right at the best of times.

Throw in different finishes, formula’s and a bunch of letters and numbers, it can be enough to make your head explode.

Too dramatic??

Things to bear in mind when shopping for foundation.

These 4 things will work as your basic guide to picking an everyday foundation.

If you wanted a foundation for a specific occasion or one that will give you a specific quality to your skin then you would look at different factors. This is just the basic knowledge you need to be equipt with to begin.

1.Your skin tone~ fair, medium, dark.

So that you know which section of the colour spectrum you should be looking at, to begin with. Of course, there are many variations of each tone…

2.Your undertone~ cool, warm, or neutral

So that you pick a foundation with the correct base colour for your undertone

(The quickest way to check this is to look at the veins on your wrist if they are blue then you have a cool undertone, you have a warm undertone if they are more green, and if there is neither more green or blue then you have a neutral undertone.)

For example, you could have fair skin but a warm undertone, so you would want a pale colour foundation that is yellow based rather than pink.Those of us with neutral undertones should pick colours that have a balance of the two.

Just as a side note, even if you have a cool undertone do steer clear of foundations that are overly pink based (fortunately there aren’t too many nowadays!) as they never blend into the skin enough to leave a natural finish.

Test shades on your jawline in as natural a light as you can you will want to pick out the shade that best blends with your chest/shoulder colour.If you are stuck deciding between 2 shades pick out the lighter shade as you can always darken it with bronzer.

3.Your skin type~ normal, dry, oily or combination.

So that you pick a foundation with the formula and finish that is most beneficial to you regarding the application, longevity and overall look of the foundation you choose.

Generally, foundations aren’t labelled up to specify which skin types they are most suitable for. Revlon colour stay shades do come in normal/dry and combination/oily, however, I can’t think of another drugstore brand that specifically states skin type suitability on their foundation bottles.

4.Coverage

MAKE UP TIPS CHOOSING THE RIGHT FOUNDATION

This is personal preference all the way!

Drugstore basics~ How to choose the right foundation 5

Normal-dry skin types

Bourjois Healthy mix serum £10.99

Bourjois Healthy mix £9.99

Rimmel wake me up £8.99

Maybelline fit me! £7.99

Oily/combination

Loreal True match (great shade range) £9.99

Revlon colourstay £12.49

Rimmel match perfection £6.99

Garnier nutritionist BB oil free miracle skin perfector £6.66

Bourjois 1,2,3 perfect £10.99

I really hope I explained this clearly and this was helpful to some of you!

Do tell me your drugstore faves!!

How To Apply Lower Lash Mascara With Any Wand

Why You Have Probably Been Applying Mascara Wrong!

By Natalie

On 19th June 2017

In Beauty, Life, Minus the Marble, Tips for Makeup Artists

I’m talking lower lash mascara here.

Personally, I don’t think that a perfect application exists when it comes to top lashes.

However, when it comes to lower lashes I feel the majority of people have the same mascara application method. I always see friends, family, and clients do it. (I never apply my client’s mascara unless they insist)

Of course each to their own but it just makes no sense to me.

And it looks like hard work.

What am I talking about?

Holding the wand at a horizontal angle cutting across the eye. Hand flying about in mid-air = no control and more room for smudgy mistakes. Who’s got the time for those?

Take back control!

Instead of that, try holding the wand vertically and resting your little finger on your cheek. This allows you to move the wand more easily back and forth across the lower lashes. With your little finger as the *pivotal point, you remain in total control of the wand.

The great thing is that you can use any size mascara wand with this method and always have full control. And unless you overload your wand with product, it’s very difficult to make a mistake or create clumpy lashes. It’s also difficult to poke the wand into your eye!

Perfect lower lashes every time…I promise!

*Can anyone else say pivot and not think of Ross Geller??

DIY ‘Pinterest’ Shelves On A Budget

By Natalie

On 12th June 2017

In Life, Minus the Marble

I am obsessed with Pinterest!

I have pretty much my entire life planned out on there. Anyone else?

Last year I pinned this picture.

As we had just moved house I made it my mission to get something similar for our new living room.

I was expecting to order a complete unit and wasn’t looking forward to forking out what I imagined to be an arm and a leg. A DIY project never crossed my mind.

Luckily Bob is much tighter than I am so he shopped around. Bob is also a bit of a dab hand when it comes to knocking things up ~ *cough* don’t make childish joke Natalie!

We ordered 12 old apple crates from eBay *here for the total of £90! (+£14.98 p&p)

Each crate measures- (Width-50cm Height-40cm Depth-30cm)

Once we had given them a quick clean up all that was left to do was decide on the structure that we preferred. (You can buy them pre-cleaned and varnished from other sellers.)

The good thing about buying separate crates is that you can play around with the design until you are happy.

Then all it takes is to drill them together and fill them up.

DIY or in my case GYBTDI (Get your boyfriend to do it)

The another thing that I appreciate is that you always have the option to take them apart and redesign the unit, or just use the crates for alternate purposes if you get fed up with them.

As you can see we only needed 10.

As they are such a decent size the spare 2 have come in handy as toy storage for Finn.

This is temporary. I think we will end up hanging them on the wall in the bathroom and using them as storage shelves for towels.

I’m not fully happy with the arrangement I have on them. But for now, it will do. It’s a work in progress.

In the not too distant future, I think that I will paint them a pale colour so they look more like the shelves that I pinned originally. We still have a fair amount of work left to do in the house though so there is no rush.