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Thursday, June 16, 2011

Look: Amour De Jeunesse (French Beauty, Part Two)





Bonjour à tous!

Before, I gave you guys the lowdown on how to dress up the face a la Parisian gamine. Now, I'm going to help you explore the nighttime tricks a young woman in Paris might employ to take down the town.  I recently read an article from Marie Claire that gave me the inspiration for this look (if you want to peep it, here's the link: Marie Claire - Foreign Beauty Report: Paris). Again, the key to this look is effortlessness. But this is embodied in a different light in this look. Eyes are enhanced more strongly, but with a soft focus lens as opposed to a crisp high-definition one. Smudging again is what's important in creating this look. Lips now have some power here, called attention to by the swipe of a bold red.  Skin is still glowing, quite possibly not blotted or wiped down from the day.  You see the woman for what she is as opposed to what she wants to be. Her wild yet chic streak shines through, and it's something any woman can learn to embody with a few simple products.

Eyes: MAC Lingering Brow Pencil, RMS Beauty Living Luminizer (or any soft neutral eye shadow), Korres Eye Liner in 1, YSL Faux Cils in Burgundy

Lips: MAC Russian Red

Cheeks: MAC Instant Chic Blush, MAC Bronze Bronzer

Skin: RMS Beauty Un-Cover Up Foundation in 33

How to do this (and more pictures) after the jump (and it's really simple too):

Look: Daytime in the City of Light





Bonjour à tous! :)

So I kinda have an obsession (or two) to confess: next to Italian culture, I am sick over French women and their sense of beauty.  From Juliette Binoche to Brigitte Bardot to Catherine Deneuve, I am fascinated by the way these effortless women carry themselves. I come from a strong Latino cultural background (my family hails from three different Latin American countries) that has its own vision of what is beautiful (in a nutshell: many Latinas might as well be married to makeup :P (though not all share this view)).  However, despite growing up with this specific mindset, I've always been intrigued by the minimalist yet glamourous way French actresses and women present themselves to the world. The initial spark of interest might come more from movies than anything else, but it has compelled me to do a little research into how the everyday woman in Paris might look while carrying out her daily routine. I've done almost everything short of going to Paris myself and watching the locals (which I'm DYING to do). The tutorial I'm going to be teaching you how to do today will show you what beauty look a woman from the City of Light would choose to wear for her daily rituals. There is an overall emphasis on natural beauty. Foundation is used minimally, as well as all color cosmetics. The idea is to enhance what's naturally there, not transform it.

Eyes: MAC Taupe Brow Pencil, MAC Cream Colour Base in Rubenesque, Korres Eye Liner in 1, YSL Faux Cils Mascara in Burgundy

Lips: Eve Pearl Climax Lipstick

Cheeks: MAC Instant Chic Blush, MAC Bronze Bronzer

Skin: RMS Beauty Un-Cover Up Foundation in 33

Here's your step-by-step process on looking très chic:

How to Do Winged Liner


So this post is devoted to those of you who love the cat eye but are quite unsure on how to achieve this look. It is best worn on nights out, and can a little more time than your usual liner look to do. If you're a newbie to this, it's best to not do this in a rush. With a bit of practice, however, you can achieve a very sexy look within a matter of minutes or even seconds (if you become that skilled, which is possible). Here are a couple of tips to follow when daring to go all out with your liner:
  1. If you're starting out, be aware of the type of liner formula you use. When I started out, I used liquid. It was a challenge to say the least, especially with the awkward and sometimes small brushes the containers came with. It took time to master it. And then, a bit too late (lol), I discovered gel liner. I can honestly say that MAC Fluidline changed my life and would've been a million times easier to have used in the beginning. This type of liner glides on smoothly and doesn't dry as quickly, so you can maneuver the line in case you mess up a bit. Use a stiff liner or even a brow brush to apply to eyes.
  2. If gel is even a challenge for you, you can still achieve this look with pencil liner. I wouldn't recommend a kohl liner for this; however, you would have to use a highly pigmented longwear liner so that the line doesn't smudge after you've worn it for an hour or so. Urban Decay's 24/7 Zero liner is a good bet if you want to go for classic black. It's longwear; plus it goes on very well. 
  3. Make sure you have your mascara on and brows done for this, especially for more dramatic use of winged liner. Otherwise, the look will seem incomplete.
Here's a process to easily achieving the look:
  1. Use a lighted mirror, like those Conair ones that are lit from the sides. Sit at a vanity or your dining room table. Tilt the mirror up so that you're looking down into it slightly. Rest your elbow on the table.
  2. Create the wing first. Draw a small elongated triangle (base should start at the line) about a quarter of an inch long that extends your natural lash line. This will end up looking like you flicked your brush up quickly at the ends, creating a bolder look.
  3. Draw three thin short dashes on your upper lashline: one on the inner corner, one above the pupil, and one on the outer corner. Carefully join them together. Keep the line thin at first. Go over the original line. This time, make the line thicker as you go out towards the wing. The line should not be thicker than the wing itself. If this does happen, adjust the wing. 
  4. If you make a mistake, dab some waterproof eye makeup remover (I like MAC Cleanse Off Oil actually because it takes off any formula you put on your face and eyes) onto a Q-Tip and run it along the messed up wing/line. I like using Eye Tees by Fran Wilson to correct mistakes with liner because they have a different tip on each end: a flat, rounded tip and a pointed, precise tip. I use the precise tip to fix both wing and line. Be careful not to overload the cotton tip with remover, or else you might end up making the line run and/or have the formula run down your face. Not awesome and quite annoying either way.
  5. Duplicate the process of lining with the other eye. Clean up the line if mistakes are made.
Alternate method at the jump (one which I have used personally many times):

Sunday, June 12, 2011

I'm Back ;)


Hi everyone!

Hope you all have been well. So after a hiatus off of this blogger business (sorry about that!), I can say that I'm back for action! If you follow me on Twitter (@romanesquebty), you will see that I've previewed a few looks that I'll be doing tutorials for. Some will be everyday. Others, borderline-drag dramatic. But if you're like me, it's all fun to do! So stay tuned, and check out my next look, which I'll be posting very shortly.

Kisses!