Loose Vs. Pressed Setting Powder

Should I buy this or that. Is this one or that one better? Decisions, decisions.Don't get lost in the hype.This tells you everything you need to know.

Add Dimension to Your Face!

Sorry I've been gone so long! I started school and had to get settled into the new semester. Anyway, what I want to talk about is keeping your face from looking so one dimensional.

Foundation (especially depending on the coverage) takes away the natural highs and lows we have in our skin.When you have these highlights and lowlights taken away, your face can look very flat. What I mean by that is that it can take away from the definition of your bone structure and leaving you looking as exciting as paper bag.

Luckily, thereareways for us to avoid appearing so dull...

1.Blush--Blush is the quickest way to add some life to your face. It's also the easiest thing to overdo! Be light-handed with blush as you only need a very subtle hint of color for it to do the job. You'll also want to be sure to choose a shade that works for your skin tone. You don't want anything too harsh or so soft that it doesn't show. The most important thing about blush (alongside being light-handed) is that placement is key!!!Unless you're walking someone's runway, you never want blush shooting up the side of your face. You can even use blush on the days that you don't wear foundation to make your face a little more lively.

2.Bronzer--Bronzer is another quick way to make your appearance a little brighter. As with blush, you will want to carefully choose your shade of bronzer to avoid looking "dirty". Choose a bronzer with light shimmer so that when placed appropriately on the face, it provides a warm glow. For the more fair skinned, it can also give you a sun-kissed complexion (a healthier alternative to tanning and can be a better looking alternative to spray/lotion tanning). Bronzer should be applied to the areas of the face that the sun naturally hits such as the middle of the forehead, the bridge of the nose, along the cheekbones, etc. Below is an example of too much bronzer.

3.Contour & Highlight--Contouring and highlighting is the most time consuming way to add dimension. It also requires a lot more practice to perfect. The contouring portion is basically just the opposite of applying only bronzer. When contouring, you would want to choose a bronzer shade that's slightly darker than your skin tone. You would apply it to the areas of your face where shadows usually fall such as the hollows of the cheeks, the creases of the eyes, the jawline, etc. The highlighting portion consists of applying a highlighter to the places you would normally apply your bronzer, as well as other places such as the browbone, cupids bow, and the center of your chin. Contouring and highlighting requires careful blending and can be difficult, especially for beginners, to make look natural. This may be the most difficult option for an everyday look.

PLEASE Ladies. If you can help it, never leave the house wearing only foundation. Add the dimension back to your face!

Maybelline DreamFresh BB Cream

So, after my terrible experience with Garnier’s B.B. cream, I decided I would give Maybelline a try to see if they could do any better. Its about half the price and half the size of Garnier’s product, so it couldn't hurt to try.
The first thing I noticed about Maybelline’s line is the fact that they have more color choices. There are five tones that range between "light" and "deep" as opposed to Garnier’s two color selections which are light/medium and medium/deep. Based on my experience with Garnier’s BB cream I thought I would need the darkest tone in Maybelline’s line (which is "deep") to get the closest color match. When I went to buy it, "deep"was sold out and the next closest was "medium/deep". Based on the color on the packaging (which you can never really trust) it looked like it would be a pretty good match.

I tried it first on my inner wrist and it blended in flawlessly. When I tried it on my face, it was a bit of a different story. It looked a little white on my skin like the Garnier product did. Not half as bad, but I still noticed the whiteness. I really wanted it to work so I decided to leave it on for a couple hours to see if maybe it would do a magic trick and settle in. ABRA-CADABRA! The next time I checked the mirror you couldn't tell there was anything on my face.
With that being said, I think this product is essentially a tinted moisturizer. In my opinion, it doesn't brighten, smooth, or enhance like it says it should. It does seem like it hydrates the skin fairly well, and it does lightly blur imperfections and lightly evens the skin tone. I would say if you have a lightweight, light coverage foundation such as Maybelline's FitMe liquid foundation, either of these BB creams are a waste of money.
Since I didn't want the product to go to waste and I don't hate it enough to return it, I decided to mix it with my FitMe foundation. I just dab a little of both on my face and blend. I find that it thickens the consistency of the foundation just a tad, and makes it easier to apply like a lotion as opposed to using brushes and/or sponges to make sure you are blending appropriately.
Other than for that purpose, don't waste your money.

Contour and Highlight: Using makeup to make your face look thinner

Very helpful example of highlighting and contouring. I haven't quite mastered it yet :(

Lea Michele Smokey Eye Makeup Tutorial

Great smokey eye tutorial!

***ALERT*** Garnier Miracle Skin Perfector B. B. Cream

I mentioned this product in my last post, "Garnier Skin Renew Clinical Dark Spot Overnight Peel"which you may want to read first if you haven't already. I didn't see this product when I bought the overnight peel so when I came across it at Walmart the other day I figured I would go ahead and add it to the collection to see if using the complete Skin Renew line would yield better results as opposed to using the overnight peel on its own. Long story short, I bought it, I tried it that night, I hated it, I returned it the next day. Garnier has two shades which are "light/medium" and "medium/dark. My skin tone is similar to that of actress Kerry Washington, so obviously I chose the medium/dark.
The product itself comes as a grayish-chocolate milky kind of color (sorry for the poor description, LOL). It looked nothing like the color of anyone's skin, really, but I figured it would work its magic and blend in. Nope. It made me look pale, dusty and ghostly. I thought it would just take a little rubbing to blend it in but NO. I looked like a geisha. Not only did it make me look like I had been frolicking through clouds of ash, it also had a "gritty" finish. There was nothing smooth or flattering about the finish. It looked like the product had sand bits in it that sit on top of the skin.
And speaking of sitting on top of the skin, there was nothing moisturizing about it. It felt almost like I was wearing a thin layer of baby powder on my face (and kinda looked that way too).
Anyway....I say terrible product, don't waste your money, and I have nothing nice to say about it.
Grade: F-, Garnier.
If you've already spent your money, let me know how it went for you.

Garnier Skin Renew Clinical Dark Spot Overnight Peel

...Yeah, I know it's a mouthful to say. Anyway, this product must be brand SPANKING new because I can't find anything about  it on the internet. So, for your benefit and mine, I went in blind and went ahead and bought the product. So pictured to the left is the specific product I'm talking about. It's a glycolic peel that is applied nightly and is meant to even skin tone, brighten and smooth dull skin and fade dark spots. It's created with a glycolic vitamin C complex that delivers results while still being gentle.

According to Garnier;
In 1 Week: Skin feels softer and smoother.
In 4 Weeks: Dark spots and acne marks are diminished, and skin looks more uniform.
In 12 Weeks: Skin looks more radiant and bright.

Now, apparently there is a whole Skin Renew line of Garnier products (which I didn't see when I stumbled across this product at WalMart) and I don't know if these are the results that are to be expected when using the whole system, or just the overnight peel. The system includes a BB cream, an anti-puff and an anti dark circle under eye roller, as well as three different types of moisturizers (all of which address dark spots and uneven skin tone).

Radiance Moisture Cream

I only have the overnight peel and I'm currently on night #2 of use. When I got up this morning, my skin did feel very soft. Right now I have two acne spots that are relatively noticeable that I have been trying to get rid of using a Clean & Clear system that consists of a spot treatment and a nightly mark clearing lotion. Not all that much help. I could be extremely overly optimistic right now but I am under the impression that the spots looked a little lighter this morning.

Needless to say I have high hopes for the product. I'll make a point to check back in after a week to update.