Makeup : Beauty and Fashion Tech

Makeup from DHC Skincare: Moist Color Base, Q10 Foundation, and Q10 Powder

DHC skincare is a Japanese skin care and cosmetics company. I have been a long time fan of DHC skincare products, especially their Olive Oil cleanser (read previous DHC review), but until recently, I had not tried much of DHC’s Makeup. So I decide to change that and sent in an order.

I decided to try out a combination of DHC foundation and makeup products to see how well I could achieve a look using them that would hopefully lessen the appearance of my melasma, but without using a full coverage foundation. I found a good mix for that. These item also contain Coenzyme Q as an anti-aging ingredient. So you can get some double duty action out of them!

First off, I applied DHC Q10 Moist Color Base . This product comes in several varieties:

Pink: Lends a rosy glow to diminish yellow undertones
Apricot: Adds warmth to liven pale, dull complexions
Beige: Balances uneven tones for a natural neutral look
Yellow: Ideal for moderate redness and unwanted pinkness
Green: Helps conceal severe redness issues

I used beige, which was advertised to help even out the appearance of discoloration. I found that it worked fairly well for that. The base is a light beige tone that doesn’t really tint much, but does help lessen the look of hyperpigmentation. Despite the term “moist” in the name, It came out quite matte, which I liked since I was fairly oily at the time that I tried it. Because of its shade, I think it would work for fair to medium skin, but those with truly porcelain skin or with brown skin might not find it very useful. The base acts quite well as a basic makeup primer, but if you want a true silicon primer, try out DHC Velvet Skin Coat instead (read review). That one is also clear, so it works well with all skin colors.

Next, I applied DHC Q10 Liquid Foundation. This is a sheer foundation with Coenzyme Q10 to add anti-aging properties. I appreciate double duty products, so I liked the idea of this item before I even tried it. Once I did try it, I loved the product. DHC Q10 foundation is sheer and a bit moisturizing, making it very comfortable to wear. Coverage is sheer, so while this doesn’t cover my melasma well alone, I found that it worked well in conjunction with the moist color base. For those wanting just a bit of sheer evening of redness and such, this foundation would be a good choice. One downside though is that the container rather small for the price point.

My favorite of the bunch was the DHC Q10 Face Powder . In fact, this has become my favorite facial powder, replacing my previous and more expensive favorite, Laura Mercier powder. This powder has a wonderful silky feeling to it and it sits well on the skin without overly settling into wrinkles and pores. The container is also of a decent size. I love it and will be a repeat purchaser.

Items from DHC skincare are generally available only online or through mail order. You are allowed to select four DHC samples with each order and their catalog comes with samples included, so it is a good mailing list to be on!

Popularity: 7% [?]

Weekend Reading From Total Beauty

I am always on a quest for the perfect foundation. For a look at fourteen well rated once from a variety of companies, check out the article below on Total Beauty.

Top-Rated Foundations

One of these 14 crowd pleasers from Revlon, Prescriptives, MAC and more could give your skin a flawless finish — sans airbrush experts

We’ve heard complaints about foundation ranging from too heavy and drying to too light and oily, not to mention “too few shades” and “too expensive.” So we made a list of the foundations that garnered praise from TotalBeauty.com members.

See reviews

Popularity: 11% [?]

Avon Cosmetics and Cynthia Rowley Fall Makeup Look

AVON sent me this way back (I think during Fashion Week) on how to get that “straight off the runway” look, inspired by the Fall 2008 Cynthia Rowley Runway Show. I decided to wait and actually run it in the Fall. The look is a nice fresh face that seems perfect for a chilly fall or winter day:

Hair: The hair created by Avon Global Stylist Advisors Allen Ruiz, Anthony Barrow and Chie Sugwara was inspired by the romance of the Cynthia Rowley Collection. Ruiz and Barrow wanted to keep the girls looking beautiful with very soft romantic hair. The look is matte in texture for movement on the runway, and shiny to keep with the romance of the collection. The team used Avon Advanced Techniques Volumizing Mousse on damp hair focusing on the roots to create a volume foundation and gave the models’ hair shine throughout. Hair was blow dried using the Advance Techniques Two-Sided Oval Brush. To add texture and volume to the hair the Advance Techniques Extra Hold Hair Spray was used while blow drying and back-combing the hair with the Advanced Techniques Flair Styler Brush. Finally, they applied a mist of Advance Techniques Mirror Shine Spray to create a “halo” effect at the crown adding to the contrasting of textures of smooth crown and texturized full body.

Makeup: The makeup for Fall 2008, created by Charlotte Tilbury for Avon, was inspired by a fresh, modern storybook Victorian fairytale girl who looks like she has just come in from the cold. The skin is pale and luminous with flushed rosy cheeks using Avon Be Blushed Cheek Color in Pink Melon and Crushed Berry, also used on lips to create a natural “just ate berries” stain. Eyes are natural, yet fresh with Glazewear Liquid Lip Color in Clear on the eyelids to catch the light and give a subtle sheen. A light touch of SuperSHOCK Mascara in Black adds subtle definition to the lashes.

Shop for Avon Cosmetics

Popularity: 14% [?]

Cargo Blu_ray Pressed Powder

Cargo cosmetic’s Blu_ray line is advertised as designed for use in high definition filming. But they happily market to the masses, of course! I tried a sample of the Cargo Blu_ray Pressed Powder and generally liked it.

According to Cargo, the powder can be worn alone or over makeup. It contains photochromatic pigments to keep color consistent in all types of lighting. Micronized minerals fill in lines and diffusers reflect light to camouflage imperfections.

I found that it wore quite nicely. I didn’t have issues with it accentuating lines and wrinkles and it looked quite nice over my foundation. Overall, I say this one is a keeper!

I also tried a lip gloss from the Cargo Blu_ray Lip Gloss Quad and loved it! For more on that, see my review over at Girl Gloss.

Shop for Cargo Cosmetics

Popularity: 16% [?]

Maybelline Mineral Power Powder Foundation

Maybelline has done an impressive job entering the mineral makeup market. Their Mineral Power liquid foundation (read review) is one of the few liquids branded as a mineral foundation in the drugstore price range. With its Mineral Power Powder Foundation, Maybelline has done a nice job of providing a good basic powder foundation in a wide variety of shades.

Maybelline advertises their mineral makeup as talc free, but they do not mention bismuth. I did not see it on my ingredient list of the one that I purchased, but I have seen others report that they saw it listed as one of the “may contain” ingredients.

The number of shades is quite nice. Women with pale skin like mine up to dark brown skin shades will find something that works for them in this line. The range really is quite impressive.

The downside to the powder seems to be for those with oily skin. For example, Makeup Moxie tried it and found that it didn’t quite cut it–she got oily not too long after applying it. I too found that it didn’t really absorb oil well when I wore it on an oily day.

However, when I used Mineral Power on my drier days, it worked quite well. I did not experience issues with it settling into lines and wrinkles and it never looked flaky.

Coverage with this one is light to medium. I found that it covers redness fine, but it didn’t really hide my areas of melasma and hyperpigmentation. So if you have pigmentation that you want to hide, this one might not be quite enough.

Popularity: 17% [?]

DHC Eye Shadow Palette and Eye Shadow Brush

DHC is a Japanese skin care and cosmetics company. I am a long time fan of DHC skin care products, especially their Olive Oil cleanser (read review) and White Sunscreen (Read Review), but I had not tried any of the DHC makeup. Having read some good things about various DHC makeup items, I decided to change that by ordering some.

My first review is of the DHC Eye Shadow Perfect Pro Palette in topaz, and the DHC Eye Shadow Brush . I am impressed with both. Below is a photo I took of the palette.

The first thing that struck me about the DHC Eyeshadow palette was the packaging. A little door opens up over the applicator, and then a mirrored door opens over the eye shadow. It is unique and attractive. The shadow itself is fine. The shades are rather light, and sort of remind of some of the Clinque light neutral shades. That is also fine with me, but if you like really dramatic eye shadow, this might not be for you. The shadow also generally wore well for me. I also like how it is packaged, with the largest pan being the base shade and the liner as the smallest. It balances out the use better that way!

DHC also makes a line of synthetic brushes and sells them at a pretty good price, so I added an eye shadow brush to my purchase. This turned out to be one of the best synthetic brushes I have ever used. Most cheap brushes will have some initial hair loss and might not feel all that soft. But the DHS brush that I bought was quite soft and not a single hair fell out of it. So I was left quite impressed with it, especially considering its $9 price tag.

DHC items are only available online and through mail order. You also get your choice of four samples with every purchase and each mail catalog comes with a sample or two (or sometime three or four) in it. So it is a good mailing list to be on!

Popularity: 27% [?]

Nars Makeup Technique Video: A Beautiful Cheek

This is the second in a series of videos being released by Nars. In this video you can learn how to apply power and cream blush and features the popular Nars product, the multiple (read review).