June 28, 2012

Queen for a Day!



Posted by Ethne~

As a special treat, my sister Whit recently signed me up for a Master Class at her ULTA Beauty store here in big city, MN, with Too Faced Cosmetics’ Celebrity Make-up Artist and Designer Kalina Fernandez.

Whit at ULTA

How lucky am I?!

I was supposed to be learning techniques, but I ended up being Kalina’s model!!!!

Kalina and me

And naturally, being the model, I was in close proximity to the artist herself, so I asked all the questions I could think of.

Here are a few things I learned:

1~ I am a total Too Faced convert.  Check out their website here to see all their great stuff, or check out your nearest ULTA, Sephora or Nordstrom.  {Thank goodness for the internet for the good hunk of us who live in rural areas. I count myself amongst you having grown up in North Dakota!}  Anyway, Too Faced products are first and best in the business, and if you learn a little about the company, you will see how great the people are who are creating the products.  For example, Too Faced are big into bronzers to give you a sunny, golden glow (that’s what my dad calls it) without the sun damage to your skin because one of the co-founders of Too Faced nearly lost his sister to skin cancer.

Look how blue Kalina made my eyes look!
The girls thought Mommy going to a make-up class was awesome
so I brought home mini lip glosses for them
I had to practice my skills on them
Theodore didn't care

2~ I have been a long-time user of mineral powder foundations, specifically bareMinerals in ‘fairly light’.  In my twenties, it was great, and just a dusting of powder was awesome.  But I’ve noticed that as I’ve gotten into my thirties, the fine lines around my eyes (from laughter, no doubt, and a fair share of sun damage) have appeared.  And when that mineral foundation sits on my skin, the lines are visible to the public, not just to me staring at myself an inch from the mirror.

See this pic of me - my eye wrinkles being accentuated
by make-up - this is OUTRAGEOUS!

So what’s the solution?  *BB Creams*  a/k/a Magic.  Somehow these wonders of the beauty world were invented in Germany for burned and scarred skin, were then popular for several years in Asia as make-up, and are just now catching on here in the States.  I’ll give that a big ‘ol WTF!  Too Faced to the rescue!  BB stands for Beauty Balm so that’s what Too Faced calls theirs.  The point of a BB cream is that it serves the purpose of a moisturizer, a foundation, a concealer, an oil controller and an SPF all in one.  See, I told ya it was magic.  Read a little more about BB creams on Too Faced’s website here and on the Ulta article I linked here.  It felt amazing on my face and I didn't apply powder once the whole rest of the day - crazy for someone with oily skin like me!

AWESOME!

3~ Applying eyeliner with a brush (as in rub the eyeliner pencil with the brush to transfer color and then onto your eye) makes the application look smudgier, less severe, way sexier and more foolproof!  How about those for some seriously great adjectives lumped together?  Now the old, dry eyeliner pencil your grandmother used isn’t going to work for this.  Throw that in the trash!  New liners these days are much more of a thick gel/caulk texture (those in the beauty industry are probably choking on my descriptions).

Specifically for the purpose of applying eye make-up, Kalina herself designed the Shadow Brushes Essential 3-Piece Set (see here).  Now, of course I knew that I would need a set of these brushes as I saw her explain to me how she was using them to apply the make-up to my eyes.  But, sneakily, Too Faced sealed the deal by packaging the brushes in their own pink, reusable metal cigar tube with a vellum page of application instructions folded inside.  DECISION DONE!

4~ Put a little eyeshadow underneath your eyeliner on your undereye to add some color and drama to the look.  It doesn’t have to make you look overdone, but the era of boring nudes and taupes is finished, my Friends.  A little color is in!  This is coming from a girl who could trademark the 'natural' look so adding splashes of color will take willpower.

5~ Kalina said that no woman should go without eyelashes.  Even if you are not born with long gorgeous eyelashes like my sister, you can have great eyelashes every day!  The drugstore lashes that come in individual lashes (I say individual, but they are actually clumps of 3-4 hairs) can be applied in the same amount of time it takes to apply mascara so can easily be part of your daily get-ready routine.  And they cost about $3 for like 30 individual lashes.

These are Whit's for reals, but false lashes are for everyone!

When Kalina and Whit were telling me how to apply these individual lashes, I tossed into the convo my one nugget of helpfulness – that Whit had just used a new professional lash glue by Ardell that kept a set of these individual lashes on her for a week and a half, through daily face washes and showers!  Hopefully it will be on the market soon.

And, Too Faced is coming out with a new mascara in July that has nylon fibers in it.  It’s pretty much too cool for me to even describe but the bottom line is that you can stretch the fibers over your lashes with the brush, making them longer and fuller, meaning genius, awesome lashes.

Future Whit’s Tips to come, Friends!  Please check back soon.  I know I’ve forgotten to tell you some stuff I learned at my Master Class.  Plus, Whit and I have a few posts brewing: as a special treat she got me all the make-up Kalina used on me for the Master Class and Whit is going to apply it to me step-by-step for a post so you all can try it out too.  We also want to try out and show you how to apply false lashes.  And Too Faced makes a new type of bronzing oil so we’ll do an Adventures in Sunless Tanning, Part 3!

Remember that disaster from last year?!?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I truly enjoyed this piece I have taken notes as I too just got introduced to too faced and I like their products. Nice blog

WOM-MOMS said...

Thanks!