Sephora – Page 6

Beauty Q&A: I Bought The Wrong Foundation Shade — What Should I Do?

Published on December 5, 2018December 5, 2018 by Lee2 Comments

Finding the correct shade of foundation can sometimes be a challenge, especially when you fall in between shades or are unsure of how to match foundation. What’s worse is heading home after a spree at Sephora only to realize that you chose the wrong foundation shade. Do you immediately turn around and return it, or should you add it to your makeup stash anyway? And even the Ulta Beauty and Sephora employees don’t always get it right.

If You’re Unsure of Your Shade, Go Lighter

If the shade is a little lighter than what you usually wear, you might be ok. It’s harder to lighten a foundation as there’s only really few tricks to do so, so it’s best to ask for a sample of the shades you think you are so you can take home and see. The samples are free. If you did buy a foundation that is a little dark, try mixing it with a lighter color concealer or use a foundation powder that is 1 or 2 shades lighter to lighten up the foundation.

Mix and Match the Same Formula

The best and easiest way to rectify purchasing a wrong foundation is to mix a lighter or darker concealer, in the same formulation, with the foundation to make it match your skin tone. If the foundation is extremely light, I suggest to strategically use bronzer to help deepen the shade. You can even try to mix the lighter foundation with a darker shade.

Contour to Your Advantage

The last tip is an important one: If you buy the wrong foundation shade, use your face structure to your advantage. “Since the face has natural contours to it, you can use that to your advantage when your foundation is slightly off from your skin tone. Highlighting and contouring in the right places will help conceal the foundation not matching your skin tone. So next time, before you run back to repurchase, play with some mixing and give it a whirl.

Soap and Glory: Drugstore Product of the Week!

Published on November 19, 2018November 19, 2018 by Lee1 Comment

It’s true, I am OBSESSED with Soap & Glory, but for good reason! This body butter is definitely one of them! The Righteous Butter is such a creamy luxurious body cream, it’s almost hard to believe it’s a drugstore find! The beautiful texture, the girly but fruity smell, and the way it leaves your skin is, without doubt, a triple threat! I love putting this on when I get out of the shower, and I have been doing this for months now. I have dry skin, that’s actually kinda rough (SOOO embarrassing as a beauty blogger), and this has made my skin so soft, it’s unbelievable! It’s softer than a baby’s bottom now, lol. So I have to say, after a month of creamy-delicious-indulgence, I am literally addicted to this beautiful body butter!

For those of you who are not familiar with Soap and Glory, here’s a brief history on this brand.

Soap & Glory has been supporting the Clean of England since 2006, when they started formulating fun, fearlessly world-class products to give every girl THE BEST BANG FOR HER BEAUTY BUDGET.

Within weeks of the first launch, the word – and the gloss – on almost everybody’s lips was their (now iconic) super-plumping SEXY MOTHER PUCKER™. Soon after, our all-time, dry-skin classic – THE RIGHTEOUS BUTTER™ – was voted Britain’s Best Body Butter and our MAKE YOURSELF YOUTHFUL™ anti-aging peptide serum took The Times Beauty Awards Gold Star. The bar was set high. And every single Soap & Glory product that followed has been brilliant.

Was also featured on “How to Look Good Naked” reality tv show on 3/1/2008.

The texture to me is light but some may find it heavy, so make sure you apply this straight out of the shower, then pat dry after half an hour if you are going out! It’s not greasy, it does soak it, but just in case you over apply and get carried away!

The packaging of the Soap & Glory Righteous Butter is charming, pretty & fun. As with many of their products, it’s somewhat nostalgic & PINK!

One of my favorite things about T he Righteous Butter is the Scent. It is amazing. Soap & Glory calls it their “original pink fragrance“. The fruity-floral signature fragrance is a blend of rose, bergamot, orange leaf, lemon, strawberry, gardenia, and jasmine. Some have compared it to Dior Miss Cherie perfume.

Bottom Line

If you are an all-natural gal, this may not be for you because it does contain parabens. If that doesn’t bother you, this body butter is worth a try! The company claims that a tub of this is sold every 20 seconds somewhere in the world. I can see why. It does what it claims to do – moisturizes extremely dry, dehydrated skin, it smells amazing and doesn’t cost a fortune! The Righteous Butte r has become a staple in my bathroom and I will definitely continue using it.

Soap & Glory The Righteous Butter
Available at Ulta Beauty ($15 for 10.1 oz), Sephora, Target ($14.99 for 10.01 oz)

Have you tried The Righteous Butter? Or any other Soap & Glory Products? What are your favorites? As always, I’d love to hear from you. Please leave your comments below!

Primp Tip: How to Find Your Perfect Brow Shape

Published on September 12, 2018May 1, 2024 by Lee1 Comment

Eyebrows have been a hot topic of conversation for a while now. Similar to fashion, it seems as if brow trends come and go with the seasons. When I was in high school thin, over-tweezed brows were everywhere. But now, it’s time to give the tweezers a rest! Full brows are dominating the beauty scene. And while bold is on trend, not every woman has been blessed in this department. Rather than force an unnatural shape, this post is all about learning how to enhance your natural eyebrows with minimal tools (and less plucking!). Let’s get to it…

Locating The Start And Endpoints

Begin by lining up your tweezers along the side of your nose. By doing this you should be able to see that the front of your brows should align with the upper bridge of your nose. After you do this, very minimal tweezing between your brows should be done to prevent your eyebrows from looking too far apart. My advice is to just get rid of stray hairs and nothing more.

To locate the end of your brows, align your tweezers with the outer corner of your eyes. Where your tweezers meet your brow bone is ideally where your eyebrows should end. Remember that everyone’s brows are different! Not all brows will extend to the outer corner of the eye and some will reach past this point. Similar to grooming the start of your brows, you don’t want to over-tweeze the end of your brows either. You just want to clean up stray hairs here and there.

Defining The Arch

The easiest way to define your arch is by using a white eyeliner pencil. Using a white eyeliner pencil will help you locate stray hairs that fall outside of your defined eyebrow shape. Draw a line tracing the bottom of your eyebrow. You should be following the natural arch of your eyebrow for this step, not creating a new one. Once you’ve drawn the line, tweeze whatever stray hairs fall below it.

My last bit of advice for defining your brows is to trim them. To do this, use an eyebrow spooly and comb those brows upwards. Take eyebrow scissors and trim any hairs that are longer than your actual brow shape. This step helps maintain your shape more than just using products alone.

Brow Sculpting 101

Now that you’ve enhanced the natural shape of your brows, it’s time to help them out a bit. If you’re more of a natural girl when it comes to makeup, brow gels are going to be your best friend. Clear gels will help keep your brows sculpted all day long without having to fill them in. If you have sparse brows I recommend trying your hand at brow pencils, powders or colored gels.

While drama isn’t necessarily a bad thing, remember to keep it natural when filling in your brows. Start by filling in the arches, using strokes that mimic the direction of your natural hair growth. Then, follow your arches to fill in the end of your eyebrows. Use longer strokes here but don’t go too far past the ends.

Lastly, use smaller strokes to fill in the starting points of your eyebrows. This area is where you should be filling in your brows the least. Like I mentioned earlier, use strokes that mimic your actual hairs as to avoid any over-filling. As a finishing touch, use a spooly to blend the product into your brows for the most natural effect.

Like anything else in life, practice makes perfect. If you’re still unsure about grooming your brows, here’s how to decide whether to wax, thread or tweeze. I hope this helps any brow debacles that you might be having!

What tips and tricks do you have when it comes to brows?

I’d love to hear your suggestions in the comments.

XO Lee

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Beauty Essential: My Favorite Foundations

Published on August 24, 2018August 24, 2018 by Lee1 Comment

It is hard for me as a woman of color to find the perfect foundation. Luckily,  there are tools  out there to help me find the product for me. Over the years, I've went through countless brands in search of the hue that would match my melanin skin tone. I have six brands that I'm in love with. If you want to know which brands have my heart and want more information about them before buying your next foundation then keep on reading.

NARS

I have been using Nars Sheer Glow Foundation for couple of months now and honestly my makeup always ends up looking hydrated, more luminous, softer, and smoother. It has a sheer, buildable coverage foundation with a radiant natural finish. The Sheer Glow Foundation glides on effortlessly, blurring imperfections and evening out skin tone for the ultimate sophisticated finish that allows your skin’s natural beauty to shine through. I recommend this product especially to those who have dry skin.

What it does:
Sheer Glow Foundation enhances, without masking, your overall natural complexion. Powered by the NARS Complexion Brightening Formula, this lightweight, buildable formula delivers a range of effects while evening the complexion and improving skin’s texture and brightness. Powerful antioxidants protect against damaging free radicals, while glycerin, known as one of the most effective and well known humectants, attracts and holds moisture. A vitamin C derivative helps to brighten skin and diminish the look of discoloration. Tumeric extract, a plant of the ginger family, improves skin radiance and evens the skintone.

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From Nars, I also used the Natural Radiant Longwear Foundation. It has medium buildable coverage, up to 16 hours of lightweight, natural, fade-resistant wear, featuring full-powered radiance to smooth the look of skin.

This transfer-resistant, sweat-resistant formula stays color-true all day, and continues to look fresh and vibrant, as if it was just applied. This formula features superior blendability for an imperceptible effect that looks natural, like skin. It doesn’t look or feel cakey, heavy, drying, or masking. A unique combination of translucent base with micronized amino acid-coated pigments and mineral tone-balancing powders mimic skin’s tone, fusing with it for the closest match. NARS’ Skin Optimizing Complex—a blend of raspberry, apple, and watermelon extracts—helps support skin’s elastic fibers to smooth and improve skin’s appearance over time for optimal radiance.

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And another one! You might be over Nars right now but these are the foundations that I have tried from them which happens to my favorites. NARS All Day Luminous Weightless Foundation is an oil-free liquid foundation that neutralizes discoloration and delivers full, natural-looking coverage with one drop, for weightless, 16-hour wear.

What it does:
All Day Luminous Weightless Foundation delivers full, natural-looking coverage with unexpectedly weightless, 16-hour wear—all with just one drop. Tone Correcting Technology works instantly and long-term to neutralize redness, dullness and discoloration for more even, uniform skin. Unique blend of optical and skincare ingredients smooths skin while enhancing its natural beauty.

Weightless Long-Wear Technology creates a uniquely fluid formula that delivers complete coverage with unexpected weightless wear. This breakthrough technology contains a proprietary blend of pigments, treated by a unique polymer to make them water-, sweat-, and sebum-resistant. Unlike typical treated pigments, they weightlessly deliver long-wear complete coverage without masking the skin. The result is a naturally perfected look. The advanced flexible polymer moves with your skin to provide a comfortable, breathable feel and a natural look that lasts for 16 hours. It provides moisture barrier protection for a non-drying feel.

"Makeup shouldn’t cover your skin, it should enhance your natural beauty, not mask it." - François Nars, Founder and Creative Director of NARS

FENTY BEAUTY by Rihanna

What it is:
A soft matte, long-wear foundation with buildable, medium-to-full coverage, in a boundary-breaking range of shades.

What it does:
Finally—the ultimate photo filter in foundation form. Born in 40 boundary-breaking shades, Pro Filt’r Soft Matte Longwear Foundation gives skin an instantly smooth, pore-diffused, shine-free finish that easily builds to medium to full coverage. The oil-free formula is made with climate-adaptive technology that’s resistant to sweat and humidity, and won’t clog pores so that wherever you are, it’s going to work on your skin. Best of all, this longwearing, light-as-air texture is undetectable on skin—so you always look like you.

I am obsessing over Pro Filt’r Soft Matte Longwear Foundation that provides us with a soft matte finish that’s just right—not too matte and not too shiny. The result? A comfortable long-wear formula that lets skin look like skin.

"Foundation is one of those areas in the beauty industry that has a big void for women at extreme ends of the shade spectrum. There’s this middle ground that's covered really, really well. But then if you're very pale or if you're very dark, there aren’t a lot of options. And so, I wanted to make sure that women of all skin tones were covered so they could be included in what I created."— Rihanna, Brand Founder

SEPHORA COLLECTION

10 HR Wear Perfection Foundation has a buildable coverage that instantly conceals blemishes with an invisible, flawless finish.

What it does:
Conceal blemishes, pigmentation marks, scars, and dark spots with this foundation that provides a natural, beautiful finish. This formula blends with your skin tone to create an invisible veil, like a second skin that adapts to all the movements of the face for optimum comfort all-day long. Hyaluronic acid smooths the skin, while antioxidant vitamin E protects against external stressors. Soft focus pigments blur out blemishes and soften the appearance of wrinkles for a youthful-looking, even complexion.

Urban Decay

Naked Skin Weightless Ultra Definition Liquid Foundation is an oil-free, lightweight liquid foundation that feels like wearing nothing at all, while leaving a demi-matte finish.

What it does:
Urban Decay’s Naked Skin Liquid Makeup leaves skin looking natural, illuminated, and bright with a luminous demi-matte finish: like the beautiful skin you were born with. Light-diffusing spheres provide a visible reduction in the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, blurring imperfections for beautifully perfected, ultra-definition skin that looks completely real.

It provides truly buildable coverage with a weightless feel and a luminous finish. And it’s loaded with nourishing ingredients, including: Matrixyl 3000 (a powerful anti-wrinkle peptide), protective and brightening Litchiderm™, antioxidant green tea, and sodium hyaluronate for optimal skin hydration and nutrient absorption. The sleek, hygienic pump provides more control, with less waste of product.

Bare Minerals

BareMinerals Original Foundation Broad Spectrum SPF 15 is a mineral foundation with buildable coverage and a natural-looking, radiant finish.

What it does:
With the smooth, radiant look of a liquid foundation and the breathability of a powder, it’s no wonder this is the #1 Loose Powder Foundation in America. An original from the start, this formula is made with only five skin-loving mineral ingredients. Original Foundation’s minerals transform from powder to a silky cream when swirled, then buff and melt onto the face for a luminous, second-skin finish.

Original Foundation provides customized coverage designed to be buildable from sheer to full. All-day wear means less time spent on touch-ups, and non-chemical SPF 15 protection keeps sun damage at bay, helping skin stay healthier and younger-looking. This foundation is formulated for all skin types and is safe even for sensitive skin.

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BareMinerals Matte Foundation Broad Spectrum SPF 15 is an oil-controlling mineral foundation with skin-loving ingredients, buildable sheer-to-full coverage, non-chemical Broad Spectrum SPF 15 protection and a natural matte finish.

What it does:
This foundation’s good-for-skin, weightless minerals buff and blend seamlessly upon application. Redness, imperfections, fine lines, and wrinkles appear instantly blurred. Silica helps absorb excess skin oil, and the appearance of pores virtually disappear after buffing onto skin. Skin looks visibly better immediately, and actually improves over time, too.

It’s the ideal foundation for normal-to-oily skin types or the perfect alternative to Original Foundation’s luminous finish on those days when you want to go matte.

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Bare Minerals BAREPRO Performance Wear Powder Foundation is a 12-hour wear, pressed mineral powder foundation formulated with 90 percent vitamins and minerals for naturally matte, full, flawless coverage.

What it does:
BAREPRO® Performance Wear Powder Foundation provides 12-hour long-wear with stay-true pigments. Redefining high-performance foundation, the formula is dermatologist tested to be non-acnegenic and non-comedogenic, and it’s 100 percent breathable. The silky, non-drying powder delivers full, flawless coverage and is clinically shown to improve skin clarity, reduce the look of pore size, and control shine. It’s available in multiple shades—from the fairest porcelain to the deepest cocoa for all skintones.

PÜR

Bare It All 12-Hour 4-In-1 Skin-Perfecting Foundation is this high-performance, 12-hour, demi-matte foundation that helps to cover imperfections and instantly perfect the skin while helping to correct problem areas over time so you can confidently bare it all. Designed for face and body and formulated with PÜR’s proprietary Energy Complex and Ceretin Complex, this formula renews the look of your skin and goes the distance.

PÜR foundation is great, the only thing which is a major thing is that they don’t have a wide variety of shades. It is very limited. I use the shade deeper which I believe is the deepest shade that they have and use it as a concealer sometimes.

I use these foundations during the day since it’s lightweight and incredibly moisturizing. My skin is always left looking glowy, flawless and fresh, which is exactly how you should feel (and look) after using a good foundation.