Celebrity Looks : Beauty and Fashion Tech

Daily Beauty Bytes: Stars Without Makeup

It can be nice to know that they look fairly normal sometimes! I’m actually surprised a the number of celebrities with melasma. I notice them from time to time.

Stars without Makeup

See celebrities like Lindsay Lohan, Madonna and Jessica Alba au naturale — you won’t even recognize them!

Most of the time when celebrities are photographed, it’s after a team of hairstylists and makeup artists have groomed every inch of them, making them appear flawless (photo retouching helps too). But sometimes we get a snapshot of them without their hair and makeup done and the results are, well, a relief. They’re not perfect, as this gallery shows; in fact, they struggle with the same skin issues — acne, wrinkles — that we all do. Hallelujah! …More

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Get Keri Hilson’s TRL Look

Keri Hilson is the girl who sang in Timbaland’s “The Way I Are,” and was the love interest in Usher’s “Love In This Club” Video. She has now made a name for herself as a songwriter, writing for Justin Timberlake, The Pussycat Dolls, Britney Spears and Usher.

Keri Hilson MTV TRL Energy Video MAC cosmetics

Hilson will be appearing on MTV’s TRL Wednesday, July 16, 2008 to promote the video for her first single, “Energy.” M.A.C. Cosmetic’s Sr. Artist Romero Jennings did her makeup for the show (pictured above) and explained how to achieve the look:

Pump up lashes top and bottom with 2 coats of prep and prime mascara, then add one heavy winter coat of Plushlash mascara in Plushblack.

I then add the #7 lashes which I cut into fine pieces and place on the top lashes!

The skin was primed with Prep + Prime Skin and polished with a sheer coat of Moistureblend Foundation that is highlighted with Moisturelush Eye Cream and contoured Matte Bronzer!

Shadows were pumped up with Creme de Violet used as a liner/shadow under eye while Saddle and Black Tied shadows frames the eye!

Here is a complete list of the products used:

Prep ₊ Prime Skin, Moisture Blend Foundation NC42, NC43, and NW45 Matte Bronzing Powder

Blush in Sunbasque and Frankly Scarlet

Eye shadow: Saddle, Blacktied, Cream de Violet, Blacktrack Fluidline Gel Liner

Spice and Plum Lip Liner

Prep + Prime Lash Primer, Plushlash Mascara in Plushblack and Fascinating pencil

Mineralized Skinfinish Natural in Medium and Dark for contouring

From the Electroflash Collection: Mineralized Eye Shadow Duo in Love Connection and Two to Glow, Lipstick in Mellow Mood, and Lipglass in Major Minor

I love the use of Moisturelush (read review) to highlight!

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People Style Watch Special Beauty Secrets Issue

I love magazines. Yeah, I am an online media person, but something about holding a magazine and looking at the glossy pictures provides that extra something that just can’t compare to the Internet. For makeup and beauty addicts, People Magazine’s People Style Watch has a great special issue out for May.

People Style Watch May 08 Cover Katherine Heigl Carmen Electra

If you are not familiar with the magazine, People Style Watch normally provides celebrity style observations and tips. For example, check out page 20 for a great bag inspired by Vanessa Hudgens’ Louis Vuitton bag, or page 38 for fashion commentary from Brody Jenner of The Hills. A good amount of makeup, hair and beauty material is also always included.

The May issue of People Style Watch, featuring the beautiful Katherine Heigl on the cover, goes beyond its normal beauty coverage and provides a section of 100 beauty secrets. From top celebrity hair styles, to the best tools and tricks for makeup and hair–it is all in there. A few favorites of mine are the best mascara list, makeup artist must haves, and the interesting page featuring Beyonce on what it costs to look like a star (hint, it is a lot). There are also some great general tips in the section, some that were new to me, such as a way to use ivory soap as a hair stying item!

People Style Watch will be on the stands April 25 through May 26, 2008. At $3.99 US, it is one of the very reasonably priced magazines and is definitely a fun read.

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Review: New Sally Hansen Natural Beauty Cosmetics Inspired by Carmindy

Sally Hansen Natural Beauty has released a wonderful full line of cosmetics “inspired by” Carmindy from TLC’s show What Not to Wear. I am a big Carmindy fan and I liked her book, The Five Minute Face (Read Review). I also have been pretty impressed with Sally Hansen as of late. The new Sally Hansen Natural Beauty line focuses on natural ingredients and is paraben free.

When I saw the line at CVS, I bought a number of items to try. I was left highly impressed and am willing to bet that several items from this line will make my year end best of 2008 list (Read the 2007 list)!

The Sally Hansen Natural Beauty line includes foundation and powder, but I have so many unfinished items of those, I didn’t buy any. Instead, I got the primer, eye shadow base, an eye shadow trio, cream blush, lipstick, and a mascara. The look I created with the products and each item is covered below. All items are worn in the photo below. I am also wearing Laura Mercier Oil Free Foundation (Read Review), Laura Mercier translucent powder, and M.A.C. dual edged eye pencil in a blue/gray shade from the Heatherette collection.

The Natural Beauty Luminizing Face Primer is a really nice silicon based primer. It has a lighter feel than the cult classic Smashbox Photofinsh (Read Review), yet worked just as well. I found that it primed my skin quite well in preparation for foundation by leaving it smooth and silky. The luminizing properties are also a welcome addition. At around $10, this primer is an incredible value, and I am not aware of any other comparably priced primers of this quality. Revlon has a decent primer, but it does not provide the perfectly nice skin surface that the Sally Hansen product does.

Sally Hansen Natural Beauty Fast Fix Eyeshadow Base is another great value product. There are not a lot of drugstore shadow bases out there and this one is quite lovely. It has a light, easy to spread cream texture, that feels like it must have a touch of silicon in it. I found that it made my shadow look smooth and crease free all evening. This will become a staple product for me.

The cream blush is another great item in Salley Hansen’s new line. It is silky smooth, and Bloom, the shade that I purchased, has a nice rosy color. It is pretty well pigmented and builds pretty well, so those with darker skin can likely wear it just fine. At the same time, it also blends well, so I could wear it well with my pale skin as long as I applied with with a light and well blended touch.

Sally Hansen Natural Beauty Cosmetics Carmindy

The Natural Beauty Instant Definition Eye Shadow Palette comes in basic and fairly neutral color sets. I decided to go for the Ocean Eye Palette, a gray/navy combo, because I seem to have acquired way too much brown shadow. The shadow is decently pigmented, blended fine, and lasted well. I did not have any creasing issues. It seemed like a standard decent quality shadow to me with nothing really outstanding, but nothing wrong with it either.

The Natural Beauty Lift & Define Mascara was nothing special for me. The brush is small (I tend to like that), but has rather wide spaces between the bristles, which I think can make things clump easier. It went on OK, and looked OK. I don’t think it would be my first choice in mascara, but it wasn’t bad either.

Finally, I loved the Color Comfort Lip Color! Perfect Pink, Rose Parfait, turned out to be perhaps one of the best pink shades I have found in some time. For a full review of it, head on over to my post at Girl Gloss!

The bottom line: The Sally Hansen Natural Beauty Cosmetics line is a welcome addition to the available drugstore makeup choices. I particularly recommend the primer and shadow base. These items are comparable to, or perhaps even better than, other much more expensive products. The rest of the line is quite nice as well. Well done Sally Hansen!

Look for the new Sally Hansen Natural Beauty at drugstore and at ULTA Beauty.

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Question and Answer With Chase Aston, Makeup Artist for The Body Shop

I love the Body Shop, it is one of my favorite mall stores, and I particularly love their Satsuma Body Wash. It has the best citrus scent that I have ever found!

So, when I recently had the opportunity to ask a question to Chase Aston, International Makeup Artist for The Body Shop, I jumped at the chance.

My question:

I am noticing lots of pinks in many of the Spring cosmetics lines and some of them are rather bright. How can a person pull off wearing some of these pretty pink shades, especially on the eyes, without looking too much like a made-up Barbie Doll?

Chase Aston’s answer:

If there is one color which looks great on everyone… it’s pink! The pink tones in our lips and the blushing rose of our cheeks, give us a natural beauty which you can enhance by wearing shades of pink in your makeup. You have probably tried on a pink lipstick before and sworn never to wear it again, but rest assured - there is a shade of pink to suit everyone.

If you want to be a little more daring for a night out on the town, use a bright fuchsia eyeshadow over the lid, taking it as high as the crease of the eyelid. This gives a striking look when you blink. Compliment with some black eyeliner and lashings of black mascara. Keep the look clean by toning down the blush and using clear lip gloss. If you aren’t quite ready for such a dramatic look, try using a soft baby pink eyeshadow across the entire eyelid, strengthened with smoky dark shadow across the upper lashline and at the corner of the lower lashline. This gives a gorgeous baby doll look that’s girlie but with attitude!

Want to see more questions and answers with Chase Aston? Coming soon will be a list of links to question from other other members of the Beauty Blog Network.

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Creating Brilliant Looks with M.A.C C-Shock Cosmetics

C-SHOCK, one of the summer collections from M.A.C Cosmetics, is short for “color shock,” and boy does it live up to its name! A collection of intense, brilliant, and as M.A.C. describes, “brazenly bold” colors, it takes a bit of bravery to try. Trust me, even if you can’t imagine yourself wearing vivid green or yellow eyeshadow, or bright blue lipstick, there is something in this line that can work for just about everyone. There are obvious uses of this line for trendy young people out clubbing, for the stage, and for glam situations such as photo shoots or music videos. But it can work in everyday life as well. You just have to not be afraid of how bright the colors look in the tubes.

Keep in mind that I am a forty-year-old cosmetically conservative woman. I normally wear neutral browns and pinks, and anything really brightly colored stands out on my pale skin. Trying blue mascara was a big leap for me. So when I first started play with these products, I wasn’t quite sure what to do. But I found some looks that not only worked for me, but that I really love.

Before I get to the looks, here are the basics of this makeup collection: In usual M.A.C good form, the shadows are loaded with pigment, blend well, and don’t crease. They also build well, meaning that it starta off with a light wash of color and can be built to the intensity seen in the pot. The lipsticks are the same in terms of being able to build color. The gelees have a nice texture and are not particularly sticky. Instead, they feel nicely moisturizing. I was also happy to note that they have a nice taste to them. That is an area where I have had issues with some M.A.C. lip products in the past, so I was happy to note nothing unpleasant from either the lippies or the gelee glosses.

The shadows come in a number of bright colors, and I particularly liked Big T, a brilliant turquoise blue shadow, and Romping, a gorgeous fuchsia shade. In the lipsticks, Out to Shock is a dead ringer for the Proenza Pink that was so controversial earlier this year. The other lipstick shades range from a bright coral (Overrich) to a bright fuchsia/purple (Pomposity), and yes, there is even a bright blue lipstick! But remember that these products can be used sheer, so they really are not as scary as they might appear to be in the pot or in the tube.

OK, so with that information in mind, what can you do with these intense colors outside of doing some crazy stage or clubbing looks? I found that using the colors in moderation with other more neutral tones worked for me. I also found that I could create some hip, but not too hip, lets call it “conservatively hip,” looks by combining some of the lip products, including the Blast O’ Blue blue lipstick (pictured below) and the ultra pale pink of Out to Shock.

For the eyes, I found two different looks that I liked: First I lined my eyes with my new favorite silver blue liner and covered from lid into the brow bone area with my favorite light pink shadow, Wink of Pink form Flirt Cosmetics. I then took Big, T, the rich turquoise shade from the C-Shock collection, and ran a bit of a thick and fairly dark liner with it on my upper lid, and lightly ran it under my lower lid. I topped it off with black mascara. That turquoise looked just a bit funky, without being overboard, and really made my eyes pop. The same look worked well for me with Bang on Blue, a bright blue shade. But that one I think I would only wear to a nightclub because it was a bit intense.

Another eye look that worked well for me was using the fuchsia shade, Romping, as a light wash on my eyelids only. I used a very, very light pink from Smashbox as a bit of highlight under and above it, and then lined my lids with a plum liner. I used to like plum and purple shades, but hadn’t worn them in years. This look was a bit intense for me simply because I am not used to so much color on myself, but again, it was not overboard and I was surprised to find that I really liked it. This is another one that I would wear when going out in the evening.

The lips are where I really went nuts. I found many looks that I loved by combining the C-Shock shades with more neutral pencils, and also by combining them with each other. My favorite was the combination of Cat Cosmetics neutral lip pencil, Overrich, a bright coral C-shock lippie, and Mega, a C-shock light violet/purple gelee. Combining a bright coral and a violet gloss might sound odd, but strangely it works! The lip look is very similar to one of the looks featuring Eve on the M.A.C website, which is also pictured above. Another favorite for me was the combination of the rich fuchsia/purple of the Pomposity lipstick with the Lil’ Sizzler gelee, which is an attractive coral shade. Mixing Pomposity with Mega instead resulted in a nice plum/berry shade with a light fuchsia kick that I absolutely loved and could easily wear it with some of my brightly colored summer outfits. There is an an example of a similar look here on the M.A.C website.

And what about that blue lipstick? Put it on over a neutral pencil and then layer a color like Pomposity over it. The blue adds a new dimension to the deep fuchia color of the Pomposity lippie and results in a deep purple lip that still is quite wearable. I did similar things with the Out to Shock pale pink. That shade made me look ridiculous when used by itself, but it layered nicely under the Overrich lipstick. The darker and brighter gelees, such as Sugar Shock (a deep red) and She-Boom (a magenta/fuchsia, pictured) also worked quite well layered over the pale pink.

Overall, for me the M.A.C C-shock line really was about daring to wear such unique and bold colors. I found that it was a dare well worth taking!

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Get M.A.C Cometics Tips: Chat With Hip-Hop Recording Artist Eve and Her Makeup Artist JJ

M.A.C Cosmetics recently released its C-Shock Collection; an 80’s inspired collection of “brazenly bright” colors that I have been having some fun playing with. Look for more on that early next week, when I will give details on how this shockingly bright line of colors can be used to create some really fun looks, even for a forty-year-old and cosmetically conservative person such as myself! Right now, I want to share an announcement from M.A.C related to the line that is pretty darn cool!

Hip-Hop recording artist, and Viva Glam Spokesperson, Eve, wore items from the collection for the filming of her video “Tambourine.” On Wednesday, June 27th, from 5-6 pm EST (2-3 pm PST), Eve and her makeup artist, JJ, who is also a former M.A.C artist will be available for a public online chat. The chat will be located at: www.maccosmetics.com/EVE.

This is great opportunity to get tips on using the C-Shock collection and to learn more about the looks that can be created with M.A.C products.In the photo above, Eve is wearing:
Mega Lipstick (c-shock)
Cork Pencil
Overrich Lipstick (c-shock)
Saddle Eye Shadow
Electric Eel Eye Shadow
Bang On Blue Shadow (c-shock)
Technikohl Pencil in Auto-de Blue
Fancy Ray Crème Blush

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