Review: L'Oreal Infallible Stars Collection-Beyonce Red.

     This Halloween my niece was going out as the Queen of Hearts (and sn: she had the most amazing tutu costume, made by yours truly). So, I was putting a little bit of makeup on her and went to grab a red lipstick to complete the look. I had picked up the Beyonce red by the L'Oreal Infallible line. If you haven't seen what the lipstick casing looks like, its pretty cool actually:

Outer case.



tubes pop out of the case and there's a handy little wand!

This particular lipstick is advertised as a 16 hour long-wear color that won't fade or flake. It comes with a conditioning top coat (the white tube), which contains marine collagen and vitamin E to seal in color and prevent moisture loss. Then there's the base coat, the color tube, which has the little wand for precise application. L'Oreal notes something called "Science behind the Beauty" which includes lip gripping polymers with elasticity that form a flexible color network that moves with your lips so that the color doesn't flake, cake or crack.

But does it work?!! My answer...YES. I put it on my niece at 5pm, didn't take it off of her before bedtime, and at 7am it was still on her, flawless. I didn't even use the top coat on her! I think it would have lasted even longer, but we had to scrub it off with makeup remover so she could go to school! Now, the key to long lasting color is also having moisturized lips. So, make sure you aren't applying color to dry, chapped lips, as you might not achieve optimal results. And the Beyonce red is such a pretty color, I swatched it:


a beautiful, intense red!

Isn't that red gorgeous! It is so long wearing that when I went to wipe off the swatch color I had to literally scrub my hand, and as I'm looking, there is still some residue left behind.
The application of this line of infallible, the stars collection, goes on so smooth and the pigment is true to the color as it appears in the tube. There are 5 others in the collection besides Beyonce Red: Diane's Tuberose, Kate's Plum, Andie's Rose, Linda's Beige and Eva's Caramel.
I only wish I would have picked up some of the other shades when I purchased the Beyonce on sale at Walgreens.
I, personally, love the L'Oreal infallible lipsticks, and this particular collection has also proven to be equally rad!

XO,
J.





Everlasting Liner.

One of the questions I am frequently asked as a makeup artist is how to make eyeliner last all day without it smearing, smudging, and melting. There are so many tips & tricks that work towards helping your liner last all day...there are even companies that vouch that their liner alone is all you need for a lasting look (closest I've found to this is Urban Decay's 24-7 Glide-on pencil). Well, today I'm going to share my tried and true 3-step process to guarantee you fabulous lasting liner, which is going to be especially beneficial with these summer months upon us! While reading over this you may think it seems like a lot of work, but once you start applying the techniques to your everyday routine it will be a piece of cake (and speaking of cake...just took some carrot cake cupcakes out of the oven...going to decorate them with a Royal Wedding vibe!). These steps can be used to achieve an eyeliner look with any color, but I will be referring to "black" since that is the shade I predominantly use. If you try these steps let me know how it works for you!

1. Create a Guide Line.
Using a black eye pencil (sharpened, but not to a fine point that will be rough on your eye), or retractable liner pencil, you will create a guide line for your liquid liner. To get a nice and even liner line (for any of these steps) gently pull the outer corner of your outwards, just a little bit, to create a nice smooth surface on your lid. Taking your eye pencil (my fave would be MAC's Smolder), I like to start on the outer corner of my eye and move inwards making small dashes, staying as close to my upper lash line as possible. (You can then go back and fill in any gaps in the dashes once you've made your line). You'll be left with a nice even line. If you like to wing your liner, I would personally wait until the next step to do so.

MAC's pencil liner in "Smolder"

2. Liquid Line

Using your favorite liquid liner (I like L'Oreal Lineur Intense in Carbon Black) or even a gel liner (ie-MAC's fluid-line) go over your pencil guide line. keeping close to the lash line. If you need to add more definition to your line, or wing it out, do that now with your liquid liner.

L'Oreal Lineur Intense Liquid Eyeliner in "Carbon Black"

3. Lock it in.

Now we want to lock in that liquid line--Using a small angled eyeshadow brush, dip into some matte black shadow and gently dab the shadow over your liquid line, making sure you are blending everything into your upper lash line. Anytime you put a dry application over a liquid one you are adding extra staying power (just like setting liquid foundation with a translucent powder, etc).  There you have it...lasting liner!



MAC 266 angled brush

Note: There are some other bonus jonas steps that can be done to not only add staying power to your liner but to your whole makeup look. Using an eyeshadow primer before applying eye makeup and using a setting spray after all your makeup is done can really give your makeup that stay-put edge in the summer heat.

Also: If you like to wear liner on your lower lash line (or waterline, like me) it's typically just a 1-step process as far as I'm concerned. I would just apply a creamy pencil liner to that area since your bottom lash line is more prone to watering. I really like Stila's kajal liner in onyx...it's creamy, goes on smooth and typically stays put! Questions, Comments?? Let me know....I have some cupcakes to attend to! <3

XOXO,

Jacqueline

Stila's kajal liner in "Onyx"