Saturday, March 15, 2014

NYX Blush In Taupe - Perfect Contour for the Pale Ladies

I can't help but feel as though there's a big misconception between contour and bronzer. I can't remember what beauty youtuber mentioned it, but it's a trend I've been noticing for a while now. I used to think that they were interchangeable. You used a bronzer to contour your face. But then I kept noticing that in photos, my face didn't really look sculpted. It looked.. odd. Where it should have looked like natural shadows, it seemed too warm/too brown for my face. It looked out of place.


I know it doesn't look the worst here, but trust me that it was noticeable.

And that is when I realized that contours and bronzers are not the same thing and should (probably) not be used interchangeably (at least on my personal skintone.)

(As a personal disclaimer, let me just say that I do not have a warm skin tone whatsoever. I have very cool-toned skin, and as a result any kind of warm shades look off on me; this is how I came to this conclusion. I know that it will not apply to everyone and that warm bronzers might be perfect for some people. They just aren't for me.)

To some of you, that might be old news. To others, it might be a revelation for you like it was for me. I have the featured product to thank for my revelation - NYX Blush in Taupe.

I'm going to say this now - I'm not saying that Taupe is the perfect contour shade for everyone. It does, however, look like a natural shadow on your face as opposed to an unnatural (at least one me and my skin tone) brown shadow.

Taupe is a blush that I'd heard about forever, but because I had already invested in Benefit's Hoola, I thought that I was set for the long run in terms of a bronzer. Besides, Taupe was always sold out whenever I remembered to look for it in ULTA. It was only when I was looking through my Amazon wish list, wanting to treat myself, that I saw that it was in stock and bought it on impulse.


When it arrived, it took me a while to even bothering unwrapping it and using it. Meh, I thought, I've got Hoola. It was only one morning, when I grabbed Taupe by accident and decided to use it, that I did a double-take in the mirror. It was like night and day from the effect that Hoola had on my cheekbones and jawline. Whereas Hoola looked slightly unnatural on my skin, Taupe was like free plastic surgery. Taupe looked like a natural shadow had sprung up on my skin and given my cheekbones a fresh breath of life. After highlight, they looked divine. I don't use that word lightly.

Swatches, pictures, and comparisons between Hoola and Taupe after the jump!

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Anastasia Beverley Hills Dipbrow Pomade in Ebony ❤ Review, Tutorial and Swatches!

As a fair skinned (read: pale) lady with dark, dark brown hair, it can be a struggle to find good eyebrow color matches. Anything I've come across in the drugstore has either been too chocolate brown, had too much red, or too close to black to go with my hair.

I've been interested in Anastasia Beverly Hills' brow products for a long time now, but I wasn't sure about what shade to go for in the pencil, powder, or tinted lash gel lines, and even after going to Sephora and swatching colors multiple times, I couldn't make up my mind.

When the Dipbrow product launched, I was intrigued. I like doing my brows with an angled liner brush that's fairly stiff to give me the most control, and while I normally use powder (Urban Decay's Darkhorse), the gel liner consistency meant crisper, more defined lines. Again, I faced the challenge of whether I should go with their dark brown shade or the ebony shade, but eventually, after struggling to find good pictures of the ebony dipbrow shade (seriously - there are not many good pictures) I just bit the bullet and bought it.



More after the jump!