Hello everyone,

today I want to show you a look I did with peach, yellow and brown eyeshadows. I like how the peachy shade provides a nice pop of color to the eyes, yet the look is still very wearable, even for daytime. What do you think?

Products used:
- Too Faced Shadow Insurance
- Sleek Safari eyeshadow palette
- Shiro Cosmetics Loose Eyeshadow in Shaymin
- Shiro Cosmetics Loose Eyeshadow in Small Key
- Shiro Cosmetics Loose Eyeshadow in Ganondorf
- Urban Decay 24/7 Glide On Eye Pencil in Whiskey
- Chanel Inimitable Intense Mascara
- Liz Earle Sheer Skin Tint SPF15
- Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer
- Sleek Makeup Blush in Suede
- Essence Silky Touch Blush in Secret It-Girl
- Senna Spot Lites Highlighting Pencil
- Senna Pearl Glow Lip Lacquer in Sunkiss

Directions:
- Apply an eyeshadow primer to your eyes (I used Too Faced Shadow Insurance) to help makeup stay put all day.
- Apply a dark yellow shade (I used the one in the Sleek Makeup Safari palette) on the center of the lid.
- Apply a soft pink peachy shade (I used Shiro Cosmetics Loose Eyeshadow in Shaymin) on the sides of the yellow shade and blend well.
- Sweet a copper bronze shade (I used Shiro Cosmetics Loose Eyeshadow in Small Key) on the crease. Blend.
- Apply a black shade with red shimmers (I used Shiro Cosmetics Loose Eyeshadow in Ganondorf) on the outer V to darken it a bit.
- Sweep a white shade (I used the one in the Sleek Makeup Safari Eyeshadow palette) on the browbone.
- Sweep a rich, medium brown shade (I used the one in the Sleek Makeup Safari Eyeshadow palette) on the lower lashline.
- Line your upper lashline with a brown pencil liner (I used Urban Decay 24/7 Glide On Eye Pencil in Whiskey) and apply mascara.
- Apply foundation or tinted moisturizer to even out the skintone (I used Liz Earle Sheer Skin Tint in Bare) and follow with concealer (I used Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer) where needed (I used it to hide dark circles).
- Contour your cheekbones with a matte peachy brown blush (I used Sleek Makeup Blush in Suede), apply a peachy blush (I used Essence Silky Touch Blush in Secret It-Girl) on the apples of your cheeks and highlight the cheekbones, middle of the nose and chin with a an off-white highlighter shade (I used Senna Spot Lites Highlighting Pencil).
- Apply a semi-opaque pink gloss (I used Senna Pearl Glow Lip Lacquer in Sunkiss) on your lips.

Disposable mascaras wands are used by professional makeup artists to safely and hygienically apply mascara to their clients’ lashes, thus avoiding the risk of contaminating the tube and giving someone an eye infection. But disposable mascara wands can be a very handy and cheap tool for everyone to have around as they can be used for more than just applying mascara. Here’s what you can do with them:

1. Comb eyebrows
Disposable mascara wands are very handy when shaping your brows. Use the wand to brush brows upwards and into the direction of their natural hair growth pattern, and then trim excess hair. Then fill in your brows with powder or pencil and, with the wand, brush your brows again. This will soften the lines and remove any clumps that your wax or pencil may have left behind, giving a natural look to your brows.

2.Touch up your roots
If you dye your hair and need to touch up your roots only, you can do so by using a disposable mascara wand. Because the wand is small, it easily applies just the right amount of color you need only where you need it, ensuring a more precise and natural result.

3. Tame flyaway hair
Dealing with flyaway hair? Spray hairspray onto a disposable mascara wand and brush the flyaway hair back into place. You could do the same thing with a hair brush too but I find that, because mascara wands are smaller, they grab the flyaway hair better.

There are non-disposable versions of mascara wands, called lash brush or “spoolie” brush such as MAC 204 lash brush for instance, but I don’t like using them because these wands/brushes get dirty very quickly and they aren’t that easy to clean. The disposable versions are more hygienic and quite cheap too so I highly recommend you use those instead than a spoolie brush.

What about you? Do you use disposable mascara wands? If so, how?

What’s the worst blush brush?

Beautiful with brains says: Pupa Blusher Brush. It applies blush unevenly and the bristles scratch skin too… It’s really awful!

Name: Fan di Fendi
Brand: Fendi
Size: 1.07oz
Price: $76.00

What I liked:
- nice fruity floral blend
- longlasting
- the packaging

What I didn’t like:
- very unoriginal and mainstream
- the price

Are you a fan of Fendi? I am definitely a fan of this fashion house, which represents elegance and sophistication, but their Fan Di Fendi fragrance leaves a lot of be desired. Fan Di Fendi is a fresh and youthful fruity floral scent that’s said to capture the fun and freedom of life. Well, it is fun indeed until you realise that you’ve played with it a thousand times before. Fan Di Fendi, albeit nice, in fact, is one of the most mainstream scents I’ve ever tried and smells exactly like most fruity floral scents already on the market. I don’t think another one was needed and, in any case, from a brand like Fendi, I expected something better, more distinct and original.

Nevertheless, if you’re a fan of this type of fragrances, you may like Fan Di Fendi. It opens with a sweet and fresh burst of tangerine mixed with a subtle hint of pear, and pretty soon the pink peppercorns makes its appearance, but this note too is quite faint. The youthful, vibrant and quite warm top notes disappear pretty quickly and the florals take over. I can distinctly smell a generous dose of jasmine, which I feared would be overpowering but it’s not at all. It’s quite delicate and sweet instead. Rose Damascena is supposed to kick in at this point too, but I can’t really smell it at all.

The drydown was a bit of a disappointment for me. It is a blend of patchouli and soft leather accord, which I was hoping would smell like a good leather bag, only more subtle obviously. And subtle and soft it is, but also kinda boring and dull. I mean, the smell of real leather, albeit subtle, may be too much in a fragrance maybe, but still I expected this note to give an edgy feel to the scent and it didn’t. Instead, the drydown is clean but somewhat old fashioned. But overall, it’s a nice, warm and youthful but sophisticated scent that’s very longlasting and can be easily worn both during the day and night and in summer and winter too.

Available at: Amazon, macy’s and Sephora

Summary
Fan Di Fendi is a fruity floral scent that’s both fresh and warm, youthful and sophisticated. It is appropriate both for day and night time and it is quite longlasting. However, it is very mainstream and smells like most fruity floral scents on the market. It is expensive too.

Rating: 3/5

Name: Glitter in Eyeliner n.8
Brand: Layla
Size: 6ml
Price: €9.60

From Layla’s website:
Also the eyes can be illuminated thanks to the glitter! Layla assures a prefect laydown and a superior duration thanks to the most fine brush.

What I liked:
- great color payoff
- glitters are fine and tiny and make eyes sparkle beautifully
- fine brush makes application very easy
- longlasting

What I didn’t like:
- messy to remove!

If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you know how much I love Layla Glitter in Eyeliner. They are very pigmented so one coat is enough to achieve an opaque line, are easy to apply thanks to the thin brush applicator and last for the entire day. And n.8 is no exception.

N.8 is a soft black shade chock full of fine gold glitter that is simply gorgeous! The glitters are very fine and make your eyes sparkle without being over the top. It’s a very festive shade, perfect for nights out and parties.

The only con is that it’s messy to remove. Although it comes off with just water, the glitters have a tendency to end up everywhere on your face if you’re not careful!

Available at: http://shop.laylacosmetics.it

Summary
Layla Glitter in Eyeliner n.8 is a beautiful soft black shade chockfull of gold glitters. It is very pigmented, easy to apply and longlasting, but removal can be messy.

Rating: 4.5/5

Are you looking for a moisturizing lip balm that provides a hint of color to your lips and smells delicious too? Then check out The Body Shop Born Lippy Lip Balms. The brand has just released six new Born Lippy lip balms, this time packaged in a practical stick form, while the “old” Born Lippy lip balms, housed in cute little tins, underwent a restyling. The new design is inspired by pop art and is fun and cool.

Born Lippy in stick format is available in Pomegranate, Plum, Pink Berry, Toffee, Strawberry and Lychee, while in the tin format it is available in Goyave, Passionberry, Watermelon, Raspberry, Strawberry and Satsuma Shimmer. They are available at www-the-body-shop.it and retail at €4,00 and €3,50 respectively. What do you think of them?

State cercando un balsamo labbra idratante, che doni un leggero velo di colore e abbia anche un profumo delizioso? Allora provate i balsmi labbra The Body Shop Born Lippy. TBS ha appena lanciato sei nuovi balsami labbra Born Lippy, questa volta in un pratico formato stick, mentre i “vecchi” balsami labbra Born Lippy, racchiusi in un piccolo e carino vasetto, hanno un nuovo look. Il nuovo design è ispirato all pop art ed è molto carino.

Born Lippy nel formato stick è disponibile in Melograno, Prugna, Bacche, Caramella Mou, Fragola e Litchi, mentre nella confezione vasetto in Guava Rosa, Frutto Della Passione, Anguria, Lampone, Freagola e Satsuma. Sono disponibili su www-the-body-shop.it e costano rispettivamente €4,00 e €3,50. Che cosa ne pensate?

Eyeshadow is an important part of your makeup. It can emphasize your eyes and complement your overall look, but its application can be tricky. I hope these tips will help you achieve a flawless, perfectly-blended look that will last for the entire day:

1. Use a good eyeshadow base
An eyeshadow base makes the color adhere to your lid better and last for hours without creasing and fading. My favourite is Too Faced Shadow Insurance. If you want your eyeshadow color to really pop, you can try a colored base like MAC Paint Pots, which will greatly intensify its color payoff. There are also some bases, such as Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy, designed to make the shimmers and glitters in your eyeshadows stand out and give the shades a foiled look without using water.

2. Invest in good makeup brushes
Throw away those sponge applicators that come with eyeshadows. They’re usually useless. For a precise and flawless application you need to invest in good makeup brushes that are dense but soft and pick up a good amount of color. And if you take proper care of them, they will last for years. MAC Brushes are really good, but there are lots of cheaper options around that work just as well. My favourite drugstore eyeshadow brushes are Gosh Flat Eyeshadow Brush and Round Eyeshadow Brush and E.L.F. Eyeshadow Brush.

3. Clean your brushes after every use
It is really important to clean your brushes after every use to remove any residue of color that may still be on them, otherwise that will interfere with the new one you’re gonna apply next. To clean them, you can use makeup remover wipes or a brush cleanser such as Kiko Brush Cleanser. This way, you can wait a bit longer between washes too.

4. Start with monochromatic looks
If you’re just learning how to apply and blend eyeshadows, start with monochromatic looks. Blending colors that are in the same color family is much easier than blending contrasting ones. Browns eyeshadows are the easiest to blend and are appropriate for any occasion too. And once you’ve learned the technique, you can experiment with more daring combinations.

5. Use gentle motions
When blending eyeshadows make sure you use a light hand and gentle motions for better results. To blend, you can either sweep the brush back and forth gently or use circular motions. The latter is usually done with a fluffy crease brush. When blending colors on the lids, you can just sweep the lighter shade on top of the dark one (in this case, you’re just going forward, instead than back and forth).

6. Fix mistakes with a q-tip
Have you made a mistake, smudged your eyeliner or simply need to remove eyeshadow fallout? Then soak a q-tip in makeup remover and use it to fix your mistakes.

7. Practice makes perfect
Don’t worry if your makeup doesn’t turn out perfectly the first time. Blending, like everything else, takes practice. Even the best makeup artists had to spend lots of time improving their skills, so don’t get discouraged if you can’t get the hang of it straight away and just keep practicing until you’ve mastered the technique. Remember, practice makes perfect.

Do you have any other tips on how to apply and blend eyeshadows? Share them in the comments!

Nars Spring 2012 collection is at once fresh and fierce, featuring a mix of bright and playful colors and saturated, rich hues for eyes, cheeks and lips. I love the lip pencil and blush, they’re so bright and pretty, aren’t they? The nail polish looks interesting too. What about you? Do you see anything you like below?

EYESHADOW TRIO ($45.00)
Douce France: shimmery icy pink, shimmery rose-petal pink, matte deep rose

EYESHADOW DUO ($34.00)
Paramaribo: metallic shades of brass and bronze

EYESHADOW ($24.00)
Lhasa: shimmery lavender-gray

SOFT TOUCH SHADOW PENCIL ($24.00)
Dark Rite: navy blue

BLUSH ($28.00)
Gaiety: bright candy-pink

LIPSTICK ($24.00)
Bilbao: shimmering topaz

PURE MATTE LIPSTICK ($25.00)
Valparaiso: rich raspberry

VELVET GLOSS LIP PENCIL ($24.00)
Mexican Rose: hot pink

NAIL POLISH ($18.00)
Diamond Life: metallic violet

The collection is already available on narscosmetics.com.