Bare Escentuals | Beauty and Fashion Tech

Mar 22, 2012

Six Of The Best Neutral Eye Shadows

March 22, 2012 By Carleenp 2 Comments

Neutral eye shadows may not seem like the most exciting cosmetic colors available, but they can be truly striking if used correctly. Since there are so many different shades and types of neutral eye shadow, it is important to find those that match your complexion properly. A high-quality brand with plenty of staying power and the right color cast can take your makeup from blah to beautiful.

Natural shades such as taupe, tan, or brown, tend to blend in with your skin, especially if you have a darker complexion. To make sure your shadow “pops,” pick a tone about two shades darker or lighter than your natural complexion. Very fair people, especially those with a pinkish tone to their skin, will find that the best neutral eye shadows are light taupe and grayish. Olive skin tones benefit from a darker taupe shade or shades in the brown range, which can keep the skin from looking too yellow. On very dark skin, look for a shadow that's slightly lighter than your skin tone in a light tan, gold, taupe, or cream to make sure it stands out.

Quality counts, too. The best eye shadow will go on soft and blend smoothly, without a tendency to flake, crease or rub away. Look for shadows with a high pigment percentage and not a lot of filler materials, as they allow a little to go a long way. Cheap brands may seem like a savings initially, but they'll end up requiring more reapplication and may not perform the way you like. Here are a few recommendations for good quality neutral eye shadows.

The Best Nude, Natural, Neutral Eye Shadow

1. Urban Decay Naked2 – This natural-toned eye shadow palette contains a wide range of taupes, grays, browns and coppers, making it easy to find a shade that suits you. With a dozen rich neutral colors and a high quality brush included, you'll have no trouble producing a great look.

2. Lorac Unzipped (pictured)– The Unzipped palette mixes matte and shimmer shadows, allowing you to choose the taupe, gold, copper, or brown shade that best fits your mood. It contains ten shadows and a tiny bottle of eye primer to help the shadow perform correctly. This shadow palette also contains no sulfates, parabens, synthetic dyes or fragrances, petrochemicals or other harmful synthetic materials.

3. Bare Escentuals bareMinerals – This line of individual eyeshadows offers several attractive neutral shades, including Bare Skin, Drama, Queen Tiffany and Pebble. The products are formulated for a range of coverage options, including opaque all-over cover and delicate, translucent highlights. BareMinerals shadows can be used both wet and dry. They can also be combined freely, allowing you to customize your taupe shadow as you please.

4. Too Faced Natural Eye Neutral Shadow Collection – This all inclusive shadow kit contains nine basic neutral eyeshadows for smudging, highlighting, all-over color and many other purposes. The kit includes large pans of three basic ivory, peach and taupe shades, plus smaller pans containing matte taupe, deep brown, bronze shimmer, charcoal, gold and chocolate tones. The kit also includes three easy instructional cards to make it simpler to choose the right look for you.

5. Urban Decay Single Shadows – These individual palettes come in a unique subway token-shaped compact with a window to let you see your shade without opening. The shadows inside come in a wide range of shimmer and matte colors, including great neutrals like Naked, Stray Dog, YDK and toasted. The shadows work dry or wet for more intense color, plus they can also be used as eyeliners.

6. Too Faced Natural at Night Shadow Collection – Similar to the Natural Eye Neutral collection, this palette includes darker tones for evening wear. The large shadows include beige and taupe tones like Full Moon, Nightlight and Spotlight, while the small palettes contain dark browns for accents. The product also includes three how-to cards to ensure a perfect look.

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Filed Under: Eyeshadow, Makeup Tagged With: Bare Escentuals, Eyeshadow, Lorac, Makeup, Too Faced, Urban Decay

May 24, 2011

Back to Basics: How to Apply Blush

May 24, 2011 By Carleenp 1 Comment

Today as part of our back to basics series, we have a guest writer covering how to apply blush. If you enjoy this, you might also like our previous makeup tip posts on How to Apply Eye Shadow and How to Apply Foundation.

The technique for properly applying blush, fully highlighting or creating the illusion of high cheek bones without drawing too much attention to the color itself, has become one of the most coveted pieces of beauty advice in recent years. The trend has moved away from the one-size-fits-all method of applying a quick flush of posy pink, while contouring has taken center stage. Learning how to apply blush, however, doesn't have to be intimidating. Just a bit of planning and finesse, along with a little practice, will bring your technique up to par in no time.

Step 1: Prepare the Surface. After cleansing with a product designed for your skin type, dry thoroughly by gently patting the skin with a clean cloth instead of wiping it in order to retain natural moisture. Next apply a toner and moisturizer to smooth the skin and shrink pores to ensure that blush applies evenly. If you're short on time you might consider using a 3-in-1 product for this step, like Arcona's Cranberry Toner.

Arcona Cranberry Toner

Step 2: Select Between Powder or Cream. Dry skin usually does best with cream, while other skin types can generally handle powder quite well. However, there are powders available now that are non-irritating for those with acne or dry skin problems. For a powder that is all-natural but also has a creamy texture, try Bare Escentuals Bare Minerals blush.

Bare Escentuals Blush

Step 3: Choose Your Color. Blush colors can be categorized by their appropriateness for skin tone, making the selection process much simpler. In general, fair skin tones look best with shades of pink, medium tones with peach or brown, and dark tones with reds and berries. However, that still leaves quite a range of options for each category, so be willing to experiment until you find a few that work best for you. Also, remember that your best colors will likely change with the seasons, so update your shade as your complexion warms with the weather.

Step 4: Select the Proper Tools. If you have chosen a cream blush, try never to apply with the fingertips if possible. Rubbing cream in with the fingers can lead to blemishes and can be rough on delicate facial skin, so use a disposable sponge applicator instead. For powders, use a contoured brush designed specifically for blush rather than a powder brush to get a more natural angled effect. You might try Urban Decay's Good Kharma Blush Brush. Or, see our previous article on the Best Makeup Brushes.

Urban Decay Good Karma Brush

Step 5: Apply Blush. In Step 4 we discussed getting an angled effect from your blush, which simply means that the face appears slimmer, younger, and more defined due to the visual effect of highlighting the upper cheekbones instead of the fuller section near the nose. Fortunately, a contoured brush does much of this work for you. For creams, an angled sponge does the same. However, in either case the application is important as well. Color should be stronger near the cheekbones, a bit less pronounced beneath, and should continue toward the hairline without reaching it, stopping just outside the eyes. Apply a single layer of blush at a time, adding and blending slowly until the desired color intensity is reached.

While more advanced techniques for applying blush are available, these steps outline the basic foundation to creating a modern look.

Filed Under: Blush, Makeup Tagged With: Arcona, Bare Escentuals, Blush, Brushes, Urban Decay

Jul 10, 2007

Bare Escentuals bareMinerals Starter Kit: Mineral Makeup, Brushes, Blush and Bronzer

July 10, 2007 By Carleenp 3 Comments

Bare Minerals Starter Kit I really like mineral foundation/makeup, but for whatever reason, it had been years since I used bareMinerals foundation from Bare Escentuals. I use their eye shimmers pretty often and just love those, but I had been experimenting with other brands when it came to foundation. I recently decided to give them a new try and purchased the Starter Collection at Ulta(pictured). The Ulta collection is one of many starter kits that are out there, and they all are slightly different regarding the items in them. It turns out that the starter kit at Amazon.comis a bit cheaper, as are some from Sephora and QVC (see the shopping link at the end of this post). So it does pay to comparison shop a bit. If you have an Ulta or Sephora Store near you, they both carry the line in the store. I have also seen Bare Escentuals stores in some malls.

My kit came with 3 brushes (kabuki, concealer, and powder brushes), two foundation shades, Mineral Veil powder (an illuminating light powder), a blush (Glee), and a bronzer (Warmth). It also included a booklet and DVD on how to use the line. Glee is a mineral blush that I like quite a bit. It is heavily pigmented, so a tiny bit goes a long way on pale skin such as mine. The amount of pigment makes it quite versatile and I imagine that it would work well on just about all levels of skin tones and shades. It also is generally a universally flattering shade. Warmth is a bronzer that also worked OK for me. It too is quite pigmented, and I found that I had to be very careful using it on my pale skin. I think those with medium skin tones would like it better.

The brushes were quite useful and nice. I find a stiffer kabuki brush to be ideal for applying mineral makeup and the Bare Escentuals brush was just right for me. There was also a nice concealer brush and a soft powder brush. The brushes initially shed a few hairs, which is common with new brushes, especially cheaper ones. But after the initial shedding, the brushes were great. They are a bit smaller in size, but I like that both for storage and portability. Plus I already own a few large kabuki and powder brushes. Having some smaller ones is nice.

Unfortunately, my re-try of the Bare Minerals foundation and Mineral Veil powder produced mixed results. On the good side, the minerals go on smoothly and with great coverage, even over melasma and hyperpigmented areas. That was just as nice as I remembered. The makeup also lasts well and has a built in SPF factor that physically blocks rays. That is my preference in sunscreen for the face. The kit I bought came with two different foundation shades, and I got the best results by mixing them because the darker one was about the right level for me, but a bit too yellow. The mix fixed that.

Now for the bad side. I really don't remember Bare Minerals being so shiny before. The Mineral Veil powder is a lovely light shade that seems like it would be a great illuminating powder, but on me it was too illuminating. It was so shiny that I just looked like I had really oily skin. Yuck! Thinking that perhaps I had put too much on, I tried using just a tiny bit the next time. That went a bit better, but it was still too shiny. So the Mineral Veil powder just won't work for me. When I tried the foundation alone, I found that it too was a bit shiny. It was not nearly as bad as when I used the Mineral Veil, but nevertheless, there was still a slight shine to it that I can live with yet would prefer that it not be there. When I reviewed Jane Be Pure Mineral Makeupone reader mentioned the shine in bareMinerals and a couple of readers suggested trying Everyday Minerals. So I might try Everyday Minerals next.

Overall, I really love some of the Bare Escentuals products. The blush is nice, as are the eye shimmers. With the foundation, if you want a lot of illumination from your mineral makeup, give bareMinerals a try, but if shine concerns you, then I suggest avoiding the Mineral Veil and/or trying in the store first before shelling out a lot of money.

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