Tag: BeautyTips

How to Fix Cakey Makeup Like a Pro

Published on by Lee4 Comments

Your makeup can start out looking as flawless as can be, and suddenly, some time around lunch, your makeup starts settling into lines you didn’t know you had and appears thick and cakey. Sound familiar? It’s happened to the best of us. Thankfully achieving that coveted second skin look and making it last isn’t an impossible feat. Here, I will be walking everyone through my tips for avoiding and fixing cakey makeup. 

Step #1: Prep Your Skin and Products

Cakey makeup is most often caused by one or both of the following: not prepping the skin properly and using dirty brushes or sponges. This is why the prep you do before applying your makeup is so important. Start by cleansing your skin. Every few days, follow with an exfoliator to remove any dead skin cells or surface debris, and then finish with a moisturizer and lightweight sunscreen. A solid skincare routine will give you a fresh, smooth canvas to work with. 

Also recommend cleansing your makeup brushes or sponges at least once every two weeks. Clean brushes and sponges apply makeup much better.

Step #2: Apply 

A third common cause of cakey makeup? Applying too much product. Try applying foundation and lip products in thin layers so that it all sets properly without looking cakey. Another tip for a flawless application is to use liquid foundation and concealer that contain hydrating ingredients like hyaluronic acid. If using a cream formula, I’ll let it melt down a bit to a more liquid consistency before applying.

Step #3: Refresh

If you follow the steps above and your makeup still turns cakey mid-day, a quick refresh is all you need. My suggestion is spraying a beauty sponge with a hydrating face mist or setting spray (try the Urban Decay Quick Fix Hydra-Charged Complexion Prep Priming Spray) and gently dabbing it over any cakey areas. This will absorb any excess product and re-blend your makeup. If the cakey-ness is primarily in the under-eye area, try removing the makeup in that area, re-hydrating, then reapplying under-eye concealer.

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Dry Hand Tips

Published on by Lee4 Comments

If you’re constantly washing your hands and using sanitizer around the clock, your hands are probably dry AF. While it’s important to wash your hands as often as possible, it can wreak havoc on your skin. Your skin is your body’s first defense against bacteria, so you need to ensure you keep your hands hydrated. Cracked, dry hands and damaged skin means a weakened skin barrier, which makes it easier for germs to enter.

Fortunately, we’ve got some easy solutions so you can say goodbye to dry hands, for good!

Find a Nourishing Hand Wash

Many celebrity dermatologists recommends avoiding bars of soap as they can seriously dry out your skin. They explains, “Soaps have a special molecule that finds oils and strips them from the skin. We need our natural oils for retaining moisture.” Therefore, trade-in your traditional soaps for a nourishing hand wash instead. We’re currently using the Bath & Body Works Gentle Foaming Hand Soaps, $8.50, as they’re infused with essential oils, as well as vitamin E to nourish and clean the skin. Plus, they foam into a rich lather that smells so good – it makes washing your hands feel luxurious! Another hydrating soap that’s a little more boujee is the Aesop Resurrection Aromatique Hand Wash, $52. The formula boasts orange, rosemary, and lavender essential oils to cleanse and restore the skin.

If you already have a liquid handwash, you can try adding in a tablespoon of coconut, olive or grapeseed oil, which will help to lock in moisture while you wash. After you wash your hands, try to follow with a moisturizer almost immediately.

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Use Oils

If you don’t have any hand creams use oil instead and massage it into your hands. Our favorite oil to use is extra virgin olive oil, a recommendation we got from Julia Roberts. It’s super-hydrating and packed with vitamins, antioxidants, and fatty acids that help hydrate while repairing damaged skin. It’s also suitable for all skin types and is anti-microbial. If you don’t have olive oil in your cabinet, you can use coconut oil (our go-to DIY oil), or any other oil.

If your hands are super dry, create a DIY hand mask by massaging oil into your hands, then put on a pair of plastic gloves. If you don’t have gloves, you can wrap your hands in clingwrap. Try to leave them covered for up to an hour for super soft, hydrated skin.

Apply a Rich Cream or Balm

As you can probably guess, applying hand cream RN is essential. In fact, we’ve gotten into the routine of applying lotion immediately after we use hand sanitizer. You can also keep hand cream next to your sink for easy access after hand washing.

Look for a hand moisturizer that contains rich, hydrating ingredients like shea butter and oils like apricot and avocado oil, as they’re packed with natural goodness that will help seal in moisture and repair the skin. Here are three of our faves:

soft hands

Vaseline Intensive Care Lotion, $16.26: While this may not be the most luxe hand cream on our list, it’s a household staple. The fast-absorbing formula is clinically proven to heal dry skin within five days. Plus, it doesn’t leave your skin feeling greasy or tacky.

L’Occitaine Honey Harvest Hand Cream, $29: This hand cream leaves our skin feeling so smooth! The rich combination of shea butter and honey hydrates while strengthening the skin, helping prevent future moisture loss.

Kiehl’s Ultimate Strength Hand Salve, $28: This cream is infused with sesame oil, avocado oil, and olive, which are all packed with essential fatty acids to nourish and repair dry skin.

Check out more of our all-time fave hand creams here.

What’s your fave hand cream? Let us know in the comments below.

10 EYESHADOW TIPS EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW

Published on by Lee3 Comments

Your eyes are arguably one of your strongest assets. They are the so-called windows to your soul after all, which is all the more reason to brush up on your eyeshadow skills. But applying eyeshadow like a pro can be tricky. What are all those different sections of a palette for? What type of brush should you use? Let’s go back to the basics. Ahead, find our ten golden rules for applying eyeshadow and you’ll be golden, too.

STEP #1: Always Use Primer 

An eyeshadow primer creates a clean canvas for you to work with, and it acts as a barrier between your eyeshadow and the natural oils in your skin. That way, your makeup stays put so you can keep touch-ups to a minimum. Try a formula like Urban Decay Eyeshadow Potion Primer.

STEP #2: Enhance Your Natural Eye Color 

You want to choose an eyeshadow shade that accentuates your natural eye color. Finding colors that best complement your eyes takes some experimenting, but here’s a good place to start:

Blue Eyes: Shadows with bronze or peachy tones help blue eyes pop. Slate gray is another great option.

Green Eyes:A plum-colored shadow looks very flattering if you have green or hazel eyes. Rusty shades are also gorgeous.

Brown Eyes:If you’re a brown-eyed girl like me, we’re lucky because most shades look great on us. But gold or purple hues are especially flattering

STEP #3: Know Your Eye Shape 

Do you have deep-set eyes? Close-set? Hooded? Determining the shape of your eye helps you decide which shading technique is right for your specific features and plays up your natural beauty.

STEP #4: Decode Your Palette

You might be tempted to open an eyeshadow palette and just have at it, but it’s important to know which sections correspond to each part of your eye. Trust us, there’s a method to all this palette madness! There’s a variety of palettes out there, but here’s a general breakdown of your basic eyeshadow quad palette (the NYX Professional Makeup Ultimate Eyeshadow Palette in Warm Neutrals is a great one to start with). 

Lightest color: This is your base color. Apply this shade from your upper lash line all the way up to right beneath your brow. You can also use this color in the inner corner of your eye to add a bit of brightness.

Second lightest: This is your lid color, as it’s slightly darker than the base. Brush this over your lid from your upper lash line to your crease.

Second darkest: This is applied to the crease for a contouring effect. This should go over the area where your brow bone meets your lid to create definition.

Darkest color: Finally, the liner. Using an angled brush, apply it to your upper lash line (and lower lash line if you want a bold boost), making sure to brush where the root of your lashes meets your lid so there’s no visible gap.

STEP #5: Blend, Blend, Blend

We can’t stress this one enough! Blending your edges can be the difference between your eyeshadow looking flawless and looking like … well, a hot mess. Don’t smear. Use a light touch and gently sweep your brush along your lid, blending harsh lines. To blend like a pro, you need the right brushes, which brings us to step #6.

STEP #6: Invest in the Right Brushes

There are so many eyeshadow brushes out there in every shape and size, it can get confusing. Here are the three most important ones you should own:

Basic eyeshadow brush:The bristles are flat and stiff, and you use this for all-over color.

Blending brush:The bristles are soft and fluffier for seamless blending.

Angled eyeshadow brush:This is a precision brush that is perfect for lining your eyes.

STEP #7: Take Care of Your Tools

Cleaning your eyeshadow brushes is probably at the bottom of your to-do list, but it’s really important. We’re talking about your eyes here, so cleanliness is key. Run your brush under lukewarm water and then pour a nickel-sized amount of baby shampoo into your hand. Swirl the brush in the shampoo, rinse well and pat dry with a clean cloth.

STEP #8: Choose Your Formula Wisely

Pressed eyeshadows are your basic, most common formula. They’re a great, mess-free option. Cream shadows are perfect if you want a dewy sheen, but they can crease easily — especially if you have oily lids. Loose shadows usually come in a small pot, and while you’ll feel like a professional makeup artist using them, they are definitely the messiest of the three.

STEP # 9: Let a Bold Eye Shine 

A smoky eyeshadow looks gorgeous on its own, but once you add a dramatic lip into the mix, the two can overwhelm each other. Don’t be afraid to go bold, but just make sure your overall look has balance.

STEP 10: Keep it All in Place With a Setting Spray 

Get the most mileage out of your makeup by using a setting spray as your final step. Hold the bottle at arm’s length from your face and spritz away. We love the Urban Decay All Nighter Ultra Matte Setting Spray.

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BEAUTY Q&A: WHAT IS BROW LAMINATION?

Published on by Lee2 Comments

If you rewind to 2018, the world was obsessed with perfectly sculpted, HD brows. Two years later, that trend has officially died (RIP) and in its place is the boy brow. It’s equally bold yet more natural, fluffy, and (looks) untouched – we’re low key obsessed.

The bad news? Not everyone is #blessed with naturally thick, fluffy brows. The good news? You can fake it with brow lamination; a semi-permanent brow treatment that straightens, sets, and tints your brow hair leaving you with full, thick brows for up to eight weeks. Brow lamination, as it’s called, is like a perm for your eyebrow hairs.

Originating in Russia, but blowing up in England and US, brow lamination tames unruly hairs and sets them in place for a fluffy just-combed look. Brow lamination is essentially a perm for your eyebrows, but without using the same harsh chemicals. It’s a keratin treatment that not only stimulates growth while strengthening the brow hairs, but creates thick, fluffy, and full brows.

Lamination is a good alternative to microblading because it works with your existing hair, giving you your ideal brow look without the use of needles, ink insertion into the body, and pain.

Here’s everything you need to know:

What Is Brow Lamination? 

According to Instagram, brow lamination is a chemical process that straightens the eyebrow. It’s very similar to a lash lift, but what it does is straighten the brow in a vertical and swept way that lasts for five to eight weeks.

Brow lamination is the latest brow treatment to blow up on Instagram and the results really do look amazing. The treatment reworks and tints your natural brow hairs to create a fuller shape. This treatment will help give you a uniform, full brow shape. This treatment is perfect for “Eyebrows that do not have symmetry: where the hairs follow a different pattern.”

Lamination is different than micro-feathering, for example, because it’s about texture, not color. “Most brow treatments are meant to fill in the brows and add darkness and pigment and can mimic the look of the hair.” Lamination, on the other hand, is a perm for the brow hairs.

To achieve this naturally full effect, brows are brushed into place in a way where every hair follows the same direction of growth. Then brush into a shape to create a very soft, natural arch. Brow Lamination is for nearly all skin types; however, a patch test is always carried out before the treatment to ensure no irritation or reaction occurs.

The Brow Lamination Process

The entire lamination process is 30 minutes from start to finish. “A chemical solution is applied to the brow that breaks down the bonds in the hair to straighten it. After that, a neutralizer is applied to reform the bonds to create the new shape. Then, a post-treatment oil is applied to nourish the hair. This process should be done before brow tinting and before brow shaping. 

Once the treatment is complete, brows will look very sleek with a wet look. This wet look lasts for 24 hours and once washed will remain fluffy. If you want that glossy look, you can achieve it easily by applying a brow gel or serum.

Post service, avoid hot showers and don’t exercise for 24 hours in order to keep them dry. After the initial 24 hours, you can wet and cleanse the face with any of your favorite products, which wouldn’t disrupt the shape of the brow.

Overall, thicker hair can endure more treatments every six weeks, but with finer brow hairs, it’s recommended they wait at least ten weeks because it can be damaging to the brow hair. If you want to get the look without the laminating process, try the NYX Professional Makeup Fill & Fluff Eyebrow Pomade Pencil to lift your natural brows with makeup. 

How Long and How Much Does Brow Lamination Cost

With proper care, brow lamination can last four to eight weeks. Many Brow Experts recommend castor oil, as it helps boost hair growth: simply apply a coating of castor oil using a Q-tip before your sleep. The price ranges from $50 to $300 depending on location and the artist who’s performing the treatment.

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Like with any new treatment, the results may be transformative, but there’s also underlying risks. If you’re curious about brow lamination, make sure to do your research to find a skilled artist that works out of a licensed, clean salon before booking an appointment. 

For more beauty tips, check out this simple 2020 Beauty Resolutions of mine!