Dr. Brandt BB Cream with Flexitone from NewBeaty Testtube - SUCCESS!

So much better without that pilling. Now I like this BB Cream!

 I had to try this fancy BB Cream again, and this time it worked.

See more in my Results section below.

For the Epic Fail Moment I had yesterday by layering this BB Cream over a night cream...argh, pilly face...see yesterday's Epic Fail Post by scrolling down and looking on the right.

Here's what I used for these looks:

Face:

•  Skyn Iceland Soothing Eye Pen from my BeautyBar Sample Society March Box
• Neutrogena On-the-Spot Acne Cream
• Embryolisse  Lait Creme Concenté
• Dr. Brandt BB Cream
• Under Eyes and around nose: Dermablend concealer in Sand

Cheeks:

• What, no NYX? I changed it up with: La Femme Blush in Coral Spice
• No contour, because the deeper shade of the BB Cream was dark enough, I thought.

Revlon Persian Melon Moondrops Lipstick...love this color

 Unfortunately, I think adding any gloss to the Revlon Persian Melon makes it dissolve within minutes, even with the Too Faced Lip Insurance. I have yet to try just the lipstick with the primer.  Maybe today. The gloss I used to top it here is Vincent Longo in Cherros, which is a gorgeous magenta shade with a great not too sticky consistency.

See how the Persian Melon and the Cherros are almost gone later?

Not my best hair day. I blame the chlorine from the pool swim. 
I need to find some products to help with this.

Eyes:

• Urban Decay Primer Potion
• Maybelline Color Tattoo Cream Eye Shadow in Pomegranate Punk on lid to crease
• Physician's Formula Shimmer Strips Pop Green Eyes the middle purple on outer edge of lids
• Physician's Formula Shimmer Strips Pop Green Eyes the right-hand purple defining crease
• NYC Purple Eye Shadow on Lash line
• Smashbox Glitter Cream Eye Liner Palette the black shade along lash line above and one third the way from the outside on lower lash line 
• Blended the whole thing together with highlighting shade from my old Pixi palette, which I depotted into my Unii white palette. It's a soft peach pink with some multi-colored glimmer

on Left in white Unii Palette—Physician's formula Shimmer Strip Green Pop Colors. I used the light purple towards the top and the deeper purple toward the middle on my eyes. I also used that deep violet pan on the right, which is an NYC shade. And above the brightest pink in this picture is the soft peachy highlighter from my old Pixi Palette, which I used to blend the whole eye look together.

Lips:

• Too Faced Lip Insurance
• Revlon Moon Drops Lipstick in Persian Melon
• Vincent Longo Gloss in Cherros

Results:

•  The Dr. Brandt BB Cream did start to have those weird red and brown streaks in it as I applied it, but when I buffed it in, it smoothed out.  This has to be that Flexitone stuff in action, and the final tone was a bit darker than my skin, which you can see in the blue-tinged office shots above, if you compare my pale pale chest with my face. This will be great by summer.
• Seems like the Revlon Moon Drops formula dissolves slowly if you apply a gloss over the top, so not doing that no more.
• Need a real conditioning treatment to help me deal with that evil chlorinated pool water. Any suggestions?  Comment below.
• All that purple manages to look neutral on me. But I think it also brings out the dark circles under my eyes.  But I love purple! Boo!

Cheers, and Happy Friday to all!

:)BeautyJones

Quick FOTD - Physician's Formula Shimmer Strips for Green Eyes

Physician's Formula Shimmer Strips for Green eyes in white Unii Palette on Left

Sunset in Pasadena, and some nice 80s pastels on my face

 Saturday night we were going out, and I'd finished my Tangerine Tango week, so I thought I'd go pastel and blue on the eyes for some fun. Again, one of my missions is to banish the notion that women over forty can't wear bright colors, or glimmery shimmery ones. You lose enough when you get older, so why should you have to give up all of those pretty shades?

The teal blue in my crease matched my shirt--which is supposed to be another makeup no-no.  Have I mentioned I like breaking rules? This shade set off the rosy pinks from my Inglot Rainbow hue #119R, which I used as a base all over my lids. It is a highly pigmented trio of pinks, and for all that, amazingly wearable. It brightens up the eyes.

Cool tones work well together, and play against the warm shades in my skin and hair

 On my lips I used Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter in Pink truffle, which is a nice Your Lips But Better shade on me, but in the cool range. I was experiencing warm shade fatigue from all that Tangerine!

Pasadena is lovely. Nice Weather. Great friends.

My blush was Precious Plum La Femme powder blush. I still adore all the shades of these I have! This is a cool lavender-ish pink, which played well with all the other cool pastel shades.

To mess with the rules a bit more and, let's be honest, because I hadn't cleaned the brush since my last use, I picked the green shade from my Smashbox Cream Liner palette, and finished the eyes off with black mascara.

Happy Saturday out in Pasadena!

Face of the Day a la Madmen - The Luscious Red Lip

Red Lip, Neutral Eye, Liner with a Flick, MADMEN!

We had to catch up on Madmen before the Season 5 premiere, and halfway through the Sunday Netflix marathon, I knew I had to do the red lip thing Monday. Christina Hendricks as Joan can really rock a vivid lip. What's nice about the early to mid 60s is there are lots of options available, including hot pink and tangerine. But I have to say, doing the bright lip at work, or for any extended period of time anywhere, takes some effort. Touch-ups, and touch-ups and touch-ups.

Do my lips look smaller?

Bright lipstick is supposed to make your lips look smaller, and so thin-lipped ladies like myself are supposed to avoid it.  But I kind of like the way it looks.  There's nothing more feminine and ladylike than a red lip.

And Revlon still has some great red shades. I'm wearing Super Lustrous Créme Certainly Red #740. Here are some others they still sell, and the years they launched. Pretty cool stuff.

I already own Fire and Ice because of its famous ad campaigns over the years. Below is a sample. Certainly Red is wearable for me because it's a bluer red -- it doesn't make my slightly dingy teeth look worse. (Okay, maybe not so "slightly.") But I love Fire and Ice...its brilliant candy-apple splashiness.

I think I bought Cherries in the Snow once when I was in high school, but that was the early 80s, and Madonna hadn't yet brought back the red lip. I just liked it--that hint of fuchsia in the deep red tone. I want to rock it now, and Love that Pink, and Hot Coral. The touch ups are worth the effort.

Cherries in the Snow Ad

In a red lip I feel like my elegant and lovely Mom, my Granny in a big hat playing shuffleboard on the deck of an Alcoa freighter, my Aunt Diana chain-smoking and leaving that perfect ring of red on every filter in that stacked up ashtray. So gloriously female.

I had a friend in New York who was working for the Metropolitan Museum of Art when Diana Vreeland was directing the Diaghilev Costume Exhibit. Apparently she decided the catalog, the opening rooms, most of the exhibit should be done in rich, true red, because, as she said,

"Red is the only neutral color."

Here's what I used:

Face:

• Embryolisse Lait-Créme Concentré 24 Hour Cream
• Skin79 Super Beblesh Balm
• Coty Loose Powder

La Femme Blushes

 Cheeks:

• La Femme Blush in Coral 

NYX Butt Naked Palette Eyes

Eyes:

• Urban Decay Primer Potion
• NYX Butt Naked Palette--top left lightest all over lid; middle row second from right taupe; brown bottom row, second from right, along lash line
• Anastasia brow wax, powder duo in blonde, and using Petite Arch brow stencil -- this is magic to shape your brows!

• HIP black gel eyeliner tight-lined under upper lashes, along upper lashes, with a little flick at outer edges, and drawn along lower lashes about a third of the way
• Anastasia double ended nude pencil along lower water line, to open the eye. Do these people make a product I don't like?  Not so far!
• Stila Lash Visor Waterproof mascara in black.

Do I feel bold enough to wear Fire and Ice to work next week? I hope so!

Now go have fun, Lovelies!