The Clueless & Lazy Woman's Guide to Eyeshadow

It's been way too long since I last updated this blog. Unfortunately, the job that pays the bills is keeping me very busy. I promise to make more time for this so for those of you out there still reading, there will actually be something new to read every week.

Shocking confession: I'm pretty clueless about eyeshadow. Yes I do makeup, and I've taken classes, but when it comes to my own face, I just don't know what to put on my eyelids! The experts will tell you that you need three colors; an all over color, then the color that is applied up to the crease, then a highlighter shade applied just under the brow bone. Most of the time when I bother with eyeshadow I just slap one color on and call it a day. Here are a few things you can use to get some color on your lovely lids without really trying.

MAC Paints, $16.00 - I absolutely love this stuff. My favorite shade is "art jam" which is a sparkly violet/red shade, but not remotely as scary as my description sounds. All you need is the smallest amount. The cream is very highly pigmented. If I really have the time, I'll make sure the color is heavier towards the bottom of my lids and lighter at the top so it looks like I actually did something special. Most days I just rub on your eyes and go! As you can see from the picture the paints come in tubes, which can get messy over time, but I've had one of them for years and have barely made a dent in the tube. The other great thing about these is that the color just doesn't come off until you wash your face or use eye makeup remover. No creasing I swear!

Bobby Brown eye shadows, 19.00 - A few weeks ago I went into Bloomingdales in Soho needing to use the restroom, but the very first thing I saw as I walked in was the Bobbi Brown counter. I was instantly drawn there, but knew I needed more makeup like I needed a hole in the head. In order to avoid buying yet another needless lipstick, I decided my mission was to find great eye shadows. I acted as though I was a complete novice to makeup, and that plan backfired on me when the makeup artist suggested the same damn colors everyone else recommends, which I already have. I told her I wanted to kick it up a notch - not an easy task at Bobbi Brown since her entire makeup philosophy is all about the natural look. We finally decided on the beige eyeshadow for the all over color, which I thought was a bit too light for my face, but I could use a highlighter color, and the Black Plum eyeshadow for the crease. Using a small amount of color, it looked really nice! I recently wore it to a good friend's wedding and it looked like I'd just put it on at 1:00 AM when I got home. Definitely worth the money.

Milani Eye shadows, $2.99 (at Ulta.com) - This is my drugstore pick. Good color selection, the color lasts and doesn't crease or look cakey even after wearing it all day. My favorite color is Antique gold, which is a lovely green-gold with a lovely shimmer. I wore it at a wedding shower once and got so many compliments on my makeup. I just used that one color; no all over base, no highlighter. Super easy!

Photo courtesy MAC.com

New Drugstore Finds

Whenever I get the opportunity, I can spend hours going from drugstore to drugstore in the city looking at all the new products from the major drugstore brands like Revlon, L'Oreal & Cover Girl.
Here are a few things I've found that I love!

Revlon Midnight Swirl Lip Gloss in Lick-Orice. $11.50 @ Drugstore.com - The color reminds me of Tarte lip gloss in "Anthony & Cleopatra". But a bit cheaper of course. The color goes on sheer and very shiny. The swirl part of it is hardly noticeable, though. Maybe that's because I haven't swirled it enough, though! What I really like about this lip gloss is that the applicator is an actual lip brush instead of that fake ass felt thingy everyone puts on the end of their lip glosses. Having the brush alone makes me feel the $11.50 is worth it.

Cover Girl Tru Shine lipstick -I love this new lipstick. The texture is smooth and the effect on the lips is smooth and shiny. I picked up two of them. Cinnamon shine and Chocolate shine. Cinnamon shine is great for a nude lip, ecpecially when blended with a darker lip liner. Chocolate shine is a nice berry brown shade. Mere minutes after putting it on I was in a store and the clerk complimented me on my lip shade!


Cover Girl Queen Lip Gloss in Million Dollar Mocha - Very pretty dark brown shimmery lip gloss Definitely great for night time! This is the first product from the Queen collection that I've actually liked. I bought two lipsticks from the Queen collection but I noticed that like many Cover Girl products I find they are not highly pigmented. With this lip gloss, the color really shows and lasts for quite a few hours.



photos courtsey revlon.com, Covergirl.com &drugstore.com

Kerry Washington's Rosewood

One of my favorite things to do is scope out the local drug stores for new makeup. While at my local Duane Reade I noticed the new L'Oreal Paris Star Secrets collection, featuring signature shades from celebrities such as Eva Longoria, model Leticia Casta and Kerry Washington. The individual tubes have their signature engraved on it. I was all excited to see what Kerry Washington, the one black celeb agreed to sign her name to as her signature shade. Imagine my disappointment when I actually got a look at the color. It's called Rosewood, and apparently Kerry Washington thinks this mauvey pink shade looks good on her and will look good on most black women. Um...I beg to differ.

While I completely agree that contrary to old school belief, black women can wear pink lipstick (hell, we have pink on our lips too). This shade, however....just. doesn't. look. right. I've been searching the Internet all night for a pic of Kerry wearing this pale ass shade. It's just not right! Kerry, what were you thinking? Couldn't you have picked a deeper color? Eva Longoria seemed to get it right with her "Caramel" shade. Kerry's lipcolor just looks..off.


Here's a link. You tell me if I'm wrong...