makeup

GUEST POST: DOUBLE DUTY IN AN EMERGENCY

photos: amy nadine/post: carissa ferreri/graphic design: eunice chun

For months now you’ve gotten to know my assistant Carissa Ferreri‘s lovely eyes and lips when she’s modeled for my makeup posts! But today she’s sharing a tip of her own. Take it away, Carissa!

Here is a trick I personally discovered while taking a trip that almost ended up in makeup disaster! I had just arrived at my destination and was getting ready for a night out. Since I was on vacation I consolidated my makeup to a small bag and just brought a few essentials. At the time I was in a phase using a black eyeshadow for eyeliner, and you guessed it… as soon as i opened the bag, black shadow everywhere! It had broke en route and I immediately realized what a bad decision it was. I panicked! I didn’t have time to go to the store so I frantically searched in my makeup bag for something else. I couldn’t believe I had packed so little! I am known for overpacking in every sense and the one time i needed an array of products I had failed to bring them. All of a sudden my MacGuyver instincts kicked in and like a lightbulb I zeroed in on the mascara! Clearly it’s safe for eyes and has the consistency of a cream liner. I used my flat slanted eyeliner brush and Voila! My signature cat eye done with none other than my favorite mascara! It lasted all night and I use my mascara liner trick to this day!

TOOLS:

STEPS:

  1. Sweep the liner brush against the bristles of the mascara wand to load it up with product.
  2. Line your upper lash line like you would with any gel liner.
  3. Liner your lower lash line (optional).
  4. Finish with a coat of mascara.

 

 

hair

DARKENING YOUR EYEBROWS

This one is for all you gorgeous gals with brows lighter than your hair color. The lovely Hannah was so kind to let me borrow her brows to show you how this is done. Her hair is naturally brown but her brows are fine and blonde. I do this on a lot of my clients in the salon if their brows are lighter than their hair color– often times on a blonde who goes darker. But you can do this at home with a rich brown dye. I prefer to get something in the ashe family when doing brows because ashe combats warmth and keeps your brows from going too golden/red. I also prefer to use something with a lower volume since your goal is not to lift, but to deposit. Try a non-permanent dye like the ones that wash out in 28 washes. I find that regular dye gets too intense and looks a bit fake when darkening brows. These ones by Clairol will do the trick! By the way– this is not the same process as lightening eyebrows (which we’ll get to soon) so keep in mind these steps are only for darkening. Okay, here we go!

You always want to be incredibly careful when using dye near your eyes. If you’re not good with stuff like this, enlist a friend! Keep your eyes closed while the color processes just to be safe.

  1. Start with clean dry brows. You don’t want to do this on brows that have been filled in with makeup because you won’t see the color change as well.
  2. Using a spoolie (which you can buy at any beauty supply) or an old mascara wand that has been shampooed and dried, comb out your brows.
  3. Apply color first to the inside half of the brow as you see Hannah doing above. I prefer doing this part first because I always find that it needs a little more time to process than the outsides. The hairs are usually thicker and more dense on the inside half.
  4. Wait a minute or two and go over it one more time with a little more color to make sure you didn’t miss any little spots– the inside halves of the brow can be really dense!
  5. Clean up the edges with a pointed q-tip. I use professional color remover, but you can also just use warm water. If you see any staining you can use SeaBreeze or any facial tonic to help remove the spot. But the whole reason you clean up as you go is to avoid staining. I would say you should give the insides 5-7 minutes to process before moving to the next step. You should see the color start changing/oxidizing.
  6. Next, apply the color to the outer halves.
  7. Clean up the edges again with a pointed q-tip and wait another 5-10 minutes. The color will probably appear darker than it really is and it can look a little scary. You can always remove a little dye with a q-tip to see where they’re at. If they’re not done, just put a little more color over that spot with your spoolie.
  8. Once it’s to your desired shade, use a dark towel with warm water to remove the rest of the color. You shouldn’t have much staining since you cleaned up as you go.
  9. Check your work in the mirror to make sure you didn’t miss any spots. If you did, just go back in and spot-treat it.

Good luck! Would love to hear your brow darkening experiences or any requests you have below. xo

    makeup

    CATCH A FALLING STAR…

    post + photos by amy nadine, graphic design by eunice chun

    Glitter is such a fun way to add a little sparkle to your look. But any time you’re sprinkling loose glitter, it’s going to get a little messy. We’ve all tried wiping it off with a makeup wipe but there’s a more effective way to quickly grab it off with tape. Here’s how:

    1. Tear off a piece of tape long enough to wrap around your index finger then wrap it around the tip with the sticky side facing out.
    2. Firmly press the tape over any fallen glitter and lift it off.

    That’s it! If you remember my nighttime makeup sequence post, you would have started with your eye makeup before your foundation. But if you already have foundation on, the tape shouldn’t pull off too much of it, unless it was a really messy clean-up job in which case you might have to touch up your foundation.

    And because I know you’re going to ask, I used Make Up For Ever Aqua Cream in Intense Blue all over the lid (Maybelline Color Tattoo Metal in Electric Blue is gorgeous too) then sprinkled NYX Loose Blue Glitter on top of it.

    tutorials

    NEW YEARS NAILS

    Last week I put a picture (above) of my sparkly holiday nails on my instagram page. These nails are SO simple and so much fun. Since New Years Eve is quickly approaching I thought this would be a fun tutorial to do because you can do these nails in any color combo. I’ve tried black + gold, white + silver, turquoise + rose gold. The key is to get a really dense glitter polish. My favorite so far are these because they have great colors and they’re super-packed with glitter. Okay, here goes:

    photos/post/graphic design: Kristin Ess

    1. Start with any polish color you want. We used black so you could really see how it’s done. Let it dry really well. You can even put a thin topcoat over it if you want so it doesn’t smudge when you add the glitter.
    2. Using your dense glitter polish and a super-thin art brush, lay down a line of glitter polish at the tip of the nail. (Or you can do the moons if you’d rather.)
    3. Using the thinnest art brush you can find, drag the glitter polish out carefully. You don’t need to drag too much of the glitter because you want it to fade to almost nothing. Only go about half the length of the nail.
    4. After you’ve dragged it out, go back in and lay down one more line of glitter polish at the tip to make it look more dense.

    Add your topcoat right away. It helps the glitter lay flatter and settle better in my opinion. Get creative with color combos. I wonder if this would look good coming out from the sides if you have longer nails…? Don’t forget to tweet (@tbdofficial) or instagram (@thebeautydept) us a photo if you try it out! Good luck and happy holidays, friends! xo