photos/post/design: Kristin Ess

Have you ever taken a peek behind-the-scenes on a photoshoot? More often than not, there is a big vanity with a lot of lightbulbs around it which help us see every little detail with our client’s face + hair. Lighting is incredibly important when you’re getting ready and it can be quite tricky if the room where you’re getting ready is darker or if you’re getting ready to out at night. As you may know we’ve partenered up with Target for the month of May to see what beauty favorites we could introduce you to… and now we need a new place to put it all! Today we’re going to show you how to build your own vanity at home for less than it costs to buy one (because let’s face it, vanities with lights are NOT cheap!).

We ordered the desk, the mirror and the lights online. We also ordered some small nails, but you may have some already. Below, you can find the links to the things we ordered along with the price.

• Carson Desk ($82)- Assembly for this table took about 20 minutes. PS- IT’S ON SALE RIGHT NOW! Hooray!
• Threshold Flat Mirror ($35)- Prep the mirror with the small nails before you hang the mirror. I put the nails about 6″ apart.
• String Lights (order these online $11.99 or pick up these in-store $12.99) - String the lights around the mirror using the nails to hold them up. There will be excess lights so you can either go around again or you can take the bulbs out and gather the cord behind the desk with a rubberband (which is what we chose to do.) Wish we could have found these lights with white cords, but no such luck! The ones we got still looked great.
• Accessorize with anything you want! Here you can see we love a good mix of makeup, flowers and sparkly jewelry on the vanity. It’s really fun to style with your own pretty things.

We know the grand total of $130 still isn’t cheap, but it’s a fraction of what we’ve found out there for vanities with lights and we think it’s well worth the investment. Follow TBD + TARGET on Pinterest for more fun beauty finds!

Post + Photography by Amy Nadine, Graphic Design by Eunice Chun

I can’t stress this quick tip enough. Do not blend with the same brushes that you used to apply the shadow! Don’t do it! Hear my voice in your head and put the brush down, grab a clean unused one and blend with that one.

Why? Because when you create a smoky eye, you’re depositing a lot of product onto the lid, so how can you truly blend the shadow you’ve precisely placed if there’s still product on the brush? You’re just applying more, not blending. And smoky eyes are all about blending. Furthermore, you typically use more than one shade when creating a smoky eye (lighter on the lid and darker in the crease or The Reverse Smoky Smoke with the darker on the lid and the lighter in crease), so if you blend with the brush that you applied one of the colors with, the remaining product on the brush will spread over the entire area and create a sloppy and muddy look. What’s the point of taking the time to do something pretty to only undo it or not finish it properly?

OUR FAVORITE BLENDING BRUSHES:

• Lancome Blending Shadow Brush
• e.l.f. Blending Eye Brush
• Cozzette S150 Cylinder Powder Brush

STEPS:

1. After you’ve finished your smoky eye, grab a clean, unused brush and blend all over by sweeping the brush back and forth in a windshield wiping motion then in smaller swirling motions, then again with bigger motions.
2. Continue until there are no harsh edges.

If you don’t have a clean brush in your arsenal (you know who you are!), no worries, just put your laptop down and take a trip into your makeup bag and clean them so I can sleep tonight knowing our TBD readers clean their brushes regularly! Revisit my Brush Cleaning Tutorial if you need a refresher. Thank you!

Spring is the perfect time to break out a little color in your palette! And it’s much more wearable than you think if you apply the bold color along the natural shape of your eyelid (don’t wing it out) and pair it with a soft pink cheek and lip. I had the pleasure of creating this look for Emmy Rossum a couple weeks ago for her red carpet event and got so many emails asking what I used on her, I thought I would do even better and actually show you step by step exactly what I did on Emmy on my friend Jessie!

Sponsored Post + Photography by Amy Nadine, Graphic Design by Eunice Chun

TOOLS:

• Teal Eye Shadow — I used Lorac Eye Color in Celebutant and also really love Urban Decay Stardust Eye Shadow in Atmosphere which is slightly cooler while the Lorac shade is warmer (revisit my Undertones post if you haven’t determined yours yet!)
• Medium Dome-Shaped Blending Brush – Urban Decay 24/7 Shadow Brush is the perfect compacted head for control when applying all over the lid and in the crease. If you don’t own a brush like this one yet, you’re missing out!
• Black Waterproof Liner — I love Tarte Skinny SmolderEYES Amazonian Clay Waterproof Liner in Onyx because it glides on thick and the blackest black like a kajal liner but it’s waterproof so it stays longer.
• Mascara – I used Kevyn Aucoin Curling Lash Color in Rich Pitch Black because it’s kinda major when it comes to curling and painting your lashes. Trust.
• Pearl Cream Eye Shadow – I used Stila Smudge Pot Liner in Kitten, the iconic warm pearl shade.
• Small Tapered Brush — Try the W3LL People Tapered Angle Eye Brush for both the pearl shadow above the crease or the teal shadow on the bottom lashline.
• Pale Pink/Peach Cream Blush – I used Stila Convertible Color in Gerbera which is gorgeous on pale skin like Emmy’s and medium skin tone like Jessie’s or try Petunia on dark skin tones or Fuchsia on the darkest skin tones.
• Foundation – I used Luminess Air Matte Foundation because I love the velvety coverage and the fact that it’s matte so you don’t need to powder after.
• Pale Pink/Peach Lipstick or Gloss – Emmy chose to leave her lips bare that night but another option would be Lorac Couture Shine Liquid Lipstick in Haute like I used on Jessie for a colored shine or Vincent Longo Wet Pearl Lipstick in Honeysuckle for a satin finish.

STEPS:

1. After applying foundation all over your face and neck, apply the teal shadow all over the lid and crease with the medium dome-shaped brush.
2. Sweep the teal shadow along the bottom lashline with the small tapered brush.
3. Rim the inner waterline with the black waterproof liner by gently pulling down on the bottom lid and tracing the pencil just above the lashline.
4. Sweep the pearl shadow just above the teal, above the crease, to add a little life to the area.
5. Coat the lashes with mascara.
6. Smile in the mirror to pop out the apples and apply the pink cream blush on the upper half of them.
7. Finish with the pale pink lipstick or gloss.

By now you’ve probably caught on that we find a lot of our makeup + hair must-have’s on one of our most favorite beauty sites, Beauty.com… so we’re so excited to invite our readers to their bi-annual Friends & Family 20% Off Event from today until Friday 5/17 at midnight PST! It’s such a rare opportunity to get 20% off YOUR ENTIRE ORDER of your favorite prestige makeup brands like Urban Decay, Kevyn Aucoin, Stila, Vincent Longo, Lipstick Queen and my favorite Beauty Blender Egg-Shaped Sponge that you’ve been dying to try (including all of the products used in this post, just make sure to use this link after you’ve added the items to your cart to get the 20% off)!

Sponsored by Beauty.com!

post: Kristin Ess

So many great emails have come in asking which shampoo + conditioner we recommend for dry, dull hair. Unfortunately, there isn’t just one miraculous product in our opinion. It all depends on what you’re looking to spend. I find myself recommending these 3 shampoos + conditioners to my clients SO often that I had to share this list with you guys, too. Here are my high, medium and low priced faves along with the reasons you’ll love them! If you’ve used any of these, feel free to chime in below in the comment section! Would love to hear about your experiences.

• Clear Hair Nourishing Shampoo + Conditioner: This stuff does what it says– gets your scalp incredibly clean. If you have issues with oily hair on top + dryness on your ends, you should give this a shot. It’s pretty inexpensive and works really well to get your hair clean without stripping it. A clean scalp is so important for getting the hairstyles you want. The shampoo lathers well and the conditioner rinses clean and leaves no residue.
• Living Proof Restore: This stuff is RICH. I don’t recommend it for super fine hair because it’s not going to give you the volume that you’re probably looking for. I do, however, recommend it to pretty much everyone else. I have this in my own shower (actually, I have all 3 of these in my own shower but I use this one the most) and over time I’ve seen a big difference in softness + shine. SO good. This shampoo + conditioner was designed to restore your hair to “virgin hair” state–and  I’m not gonna lie, it kind of does!
• Kerastase Cristalliste: How do I explain this…? I have never ever EVER met a shampoo + conditioner quite like this one. The best way to describe it is (and I wish I knew how they do this!), Cristalliste gives you softness, shine, moisture + volume all at once. It’s just not normal to get both of those things out of the same bottle. The moisture isn’t quite as rich/intense as the Living Proof Restore, but it’s still great! The best part is once you dry your hair after shampooing + conditioning with this your hair is glossy, voluminous and smells like a dream. It’s worth the splurge if you can afford it or have multiple shampoos and like to switch off.

Got your own favorite you think we should know about? Don’t hesitate to list it below! xo