Here is my May Favorites video!


The biggest deal for me in May was definitely the Smashbox Photo Op Mega Palette. Emily Noel of Beauty Broadcast was so right!

I also feature the wonderful products of small indie soap company Soapfarm here, so please go check them out!

Thanks for watching, and I welcome your comments here, or on my YouTube Channel. Subscribe to my blog on Bloglovin - link at right and on YouTube to get more videos and beauty blog posts!

Cheers!

:)BeautyJones

More Smashbox Photo Op Palette Shots below...

Smashbox Photo Op Palette: Softbox with Turquoise

I've been seeing a lot of gorgeous eye looks that are basically neutral with a pop of bright color under the eyes, so I thought I'd try one, using my holy grail product: the smashbox Photo Op Mega Palette.

I used the Softbox quad you can see at the bottom of the above picture. I put Fizz all over my lids, Pebble in the crease, Minx in a wedge shape on the outer edge of the lid, and Sienna along the upper lash line.

I used smashbox Full Exposure mascara, and then lined the eyes all around with Midnight Brown gel liner (see below.) But I left the space from the middle toward the tear duct free and filled it in with the Turquoise Eye liner pencil. I sealed it with some Physician's Formula eye shadow in a similar color from the Green Eye Pop palette.

I used the blonde and taupe shades shown below (third row down) on my eyebows, applying the wax, and then mixing the shades onto my brows with an angled brush from my Real Techniques collection.

I also used the Warm Apricot blush on my cheeks

I like the way the turquoise in the middle pops the green shades in my eyes.
The glitter in the NYX pencil likes to travel a bit, though.

Here are the pencils I used around my lash lines:

Sephora Flashy Liner Waterpoof in 08 Flashy Blue
NYX Slide on Pencil in 02 Black Sparkle

Sephora Flashy Liner Waterpoof in 08 Flashy Blue
NYX Slide on Pencil in 02 Black Sparkle

So, Lovely Ladies over 40, would you try this pop of bright color on your lash line? What do you think?

I think it would also be cool with an emerald or spring or dragonfly green.

Thanks for reading my post. Share your thoughts about this new trend below!

Cheers!

:)BeautyJones

smashbox Photo Op Mega Palette:

I love color, but some days, neutrals totally rock!

Smashbox Photo Op Auto Focus Eye Shadow Trio

With this mauvey-rose colored top, a neutral eye, and some pink blush and a soft pink lip

No one loves bright pretty colors more than me, but with a monochromatic look based on neutrals  you can achieve such subtle effects.

This makeup look uses browns and tans flushed with pink, so even the slightest hint of a brighter shade, like the posy-pink blush, and the poppy-pink lip, really jumps out. Just a bit of contrast in color becomes a bit dramatic, especially on a look meant for daytime.

I love this mauve top. I got it down at the Terranea Resort, where they sell really beautiful yoga wear.
These flat cultured pearls are a peachy-cream color, with shades of turquoise and green in the light—those subtle shades are more visible because of the monochromatic look.

The Products: This look is almost completely out of the smashbox Photo Op Megapalette:

Cheeks: Posy Pink

Lips: Bitten gloss

Eyes:

Photo Op Auto Focus:

• Champagne: A shimmery cream, all over lid from lash line to brow bone
• Flamingo: Not well named, sorry, smashbox. Anything named 'Flamingo' ought to be bright peachy pink. This is a more conventional shimmery peach with some rose tones. I do really like this shade.  I just have this OCD issue about naming things. I put this on the lid up to the crease
• Java: A matte deep brown. This should not blend as easily as it does. Matte shades are notoriously hard to blend.  Not this little beauty. I put this along the lash line, and in a soft wedge on outer lid blended up into the crease. Seriously, the ease of blending saves so much time and stress. Did I mention I am in love with this palette?
• Midnight Brown cream eyeliner, from Photo Op Mega Palette.  I just washed this out of my bdellium angled eyeliner brush, and it is so darned pigmented. Getting it out took some doing. But I don't mind. That pigmentation means you can do a brown rather than black, and keep the look soft but still strong.
• Smashbox Full Exposure Mascara in jet black. In terms of control, lack of clumping, and coverage, this is still the best mascara I've ever owned.

Here are some money shots of the palette:

Auto Focus is in the center. Now would you call that center shade 'Flamingo?' Way too subtle for that.
I"d call it Bermuda Sand.

So, Happy Friday before a 3-day weekend, every body!

I hope this post was fun and interesting, and gives you some ideas for your own daily face. Drop me a line, let me know what you think.

Also, follow me on Twitter at @BeautyJonesToo. I post Instagram shots and little reviews when I pick up random items from the CVS and Ulta, and other cool beauty spots.So much stuff to share, makeup and beauty-wise.

Have a great day, and if you are in L.A. like I am, be careful in the rain!

Cheers!

:)BeautyJones

smashbox Photo Op Mega Palette Look: Hyperfocal

So I ordered this smashbox Photo Op Mega Palette from QVC, which is the only place you can get it, and after my iPad, it's my favorite thing. Obsessed! Seriously. I may need to start a 12-step program just for this.

smashbox Photo Op Mega Palette

smashbox Photo Op Mega Palette

smashbox Photo Op Mega Palette

I'm working my way through the Photo Op eye shadow trios. Today's look is Hyperfocal, which is made up of Mist, a blue-gray silver, Rose, a silver-gray shimmery pink, and Obsidian, a deep charcoal gray with pale blue shimmer. Mist went on my lid, browbone and tear duct area. Rose covered the lid. Obsidian went down by the lash line, beneath my eyes in the outer third, and blended up into the crease.

Oh, this stuff is so nice!

The texture of this is fantastic--smooth, buttery, only a touch of fallout, and it blends like a dream.  You almost don't have to blend it at all, which really does save time. Pigmented, check. Subtle shades with nice color nuances, yes!

The palette contains all of their Photo Op shadows, a complete suite of eight eye liners, an eyebrow wax and all of the brow shades anyone will ever need, two blushes, four lip glosses, and three highlighters, aka "Soft Lights," all within a sleek red patent leather binding that closes firmly with small magnets.

I used the eye liner in Picasso, a teal-navy blue.

This almost contains all the makeup you need for travel, except for foundation, concealer, mascara, bronzer and finishing powder.

I used it with the small sample of their Photo Finish Lid primer, which works at least as well as the Urban Decay Primer Potion.

The brow powders and wax are now my favorite way to do my brows. The blushes are pretty much all you need. I usually alternate between a bright magenta pink and a terracotta shade anyway. These are lovely. I especially like the magenta one. (See tomorrow's post.)

 Lips: OCC Lip Tar in Kava Kava topped with Anastasia Lip Gloss in Bellini. This is my favorite kind of nude lip—one with a touch of peachy orange.

I hope you enjoy taking this journey with my and smashbox. I'm loving it!

Cheers!

What's your favorite eye shadow? Which formula is your favorite? Which colors?

As always, drop your thoughts into a comment below!

:)BeautyJones

Navy Eye Liner - Shouldn't Work But Does

Ray Morris's book and Robert Jones Color Theory for Makup video and lots of other makeup experts say I should be able to wear navy blue around my eyes because it will do nothing for my greenish hazel eye color.

Well they are wrong.

Navy blue around Eyes; Should work, but does

I love navy blue around my eyes. It works better than purple, because purple brings out the un-pretty shadows near my inner eyes and under my eyes.

Why does navy work?  Take a look and see if you can tell me. I think it has something to do with the golden undertones of my skin.

You can really see the blue here, which I sheered out

Here's what I used:

Skin:

• Skynn Iceland Eye Pen under eyes
• Embryolisse Lait Creme Concentre

Face:

• Skin79 Hot Pink Super+ Beblesh Balm Triple Functions

 Cheeks:

• NYX butt naked palette terra cotta blush
• NYX butt naked contour shade

Eyes

• UDPP (except this is starting to get cakey on me. How about you?)
• Cover Girl Ageless Concealer in second lightest shade
• Smashbox Photo Op Palette: lashline to crease—Butter; V on outside of lid—Peacock; At lashline and below eyes—Azure; in crease—Sable
• Liner 1: Picasso gel eyeliner from the Smashbox Photo Op Palette applied with flat wide tight lining brush
• Liner 2: NYX slide on glide on pencil in Sunrise Blue, drawn on and sheered out with short flat smoker brush
• NYX butt naked fawn shade on brows with angled Real Techniques brush.

Lips:

• NYX Red lip pencil, filling in the outer third of the lips
• NYX Lip Gloss in Salsa. Why is salsa a nude pink?

Which brings me to a bone of contention: Naming of Shades

So, Smashbox.  Here are the shades I"ve used so far from your gorgeous lovely, Holy Grail Phopt Op Mega Palette:

• Butter: a soft yellow cream.  Good. No problem with that. It says what it is.
• Peacock: a cool Samsonite '50s luggage blue with a silvery finish. Huh? Have you seen peacock feathers? They have intense deep blue greens, ranging through teal blues, to irridescent purples. This shade is not at all peacockish.  It's lovely, but misnamed.
• Azure: A deep greenish navy, matte. Again, lovely, but what does Azure mean? It means blue, of course, but its a Romance Language word, which means the Ancient Romans spread it around. Along the Mediterranean we have the Cote D'Azur in France, and in Elba we have Porto Azzurro.  Been both places, thanks to Mom the Travel Agent. So I'm going to tell you that the water there looks like this (See Below.) It's much lighter and more intense than this shade. The Blue Grotto in Capri is Grotto Azzurro in Italian. Again, a greeny intense saturated blue. Not a navy.

Bermuda on the South Shore—see the pnk sand?
Azure is that deep greeny blue shade in the middle out toward the reefs, which are deep navy blue in this shot.

 So I quibble with manufacturers about color naming. I do. It's really really important. A great shade name can evoke your dreams, your fantasies, your dirty little secrets. A bad shade name can be hard to remember because it just doesn't make sense.

NYX made the same mistake with their royal blue eye pencil, which they called Sunrise Blue, which I would expect to be a lot lighter in shade and less saturated. And Salsa lip gloss shouldn't be this awesome shade of nude pink that goes with everything.  It should be a hot orangey red, like salsa is, maybe with some yellow or green shimmer to evoke the cilantro and onion needed to make the stuff.

See what I mean?

Which shade names just don't work for you? Which ones are so awesome you can barely stand it?

Have a great day, everyone!

Today I'm going to try more of those awesome colors in the Smashbox Photo Op palette.

:)BeautyJones