Which One? | Eyeliner

I’ve been getting a few questions about which type of eyeliner is the best and to be honest, each kind of eyeliner is good for their own reasons! Don’t worry, I’ll break down three different kinds of eyeliners and provide recommendations for you guys today so you can decide which one will work for you. :)

1. Pencil liners.

So what can I say about pencil liners, we’ve all seen them, and it’s usually what we think of when we hear the word eyeliner.  Pencil liner is great for a fast and easy application, and if you’re new to the world of eyeliner, then I would highly recommend this.  It is by far the easiest eyeliner to control, and easy to fix if you make any mistakes.  Pencil liners are easy to blend, so if you’re going for a smokey look then these are for you.  However, I find that pencil liners have a problem with smudging throughout the day, which can be a problem if you’re looking for a clean line.  Also, pencil liners are prone to giving you raccoon eyes which means if you’re going to be wearing makeup all day, you’ll probably have to touch up a couple of times.

recommended pencil liners:

NYX slim pencil liner
Urban Decay 24/7 liquid liner
MAC eye kohl

2. Liquid liners.

This kind of eyeliner is great for giving you crisp, clean liners which is perfect if you’re going for a cat eye or bat wing look.  It can be a little tricky to use at first so don’t get frustrated if it takes you a little while to get the hang of it! If you’re just starting out with liquid liner, I suggest drawing a few lines on your hand first before actually applying it to your eyes so you get a feel for how light or heavy the liner applies and to go from there.  I also suggest finding liquid liners that have a felt tip, because the brush tip applicators that come with the actual liner are usually flimsy and super hard to control.  If you do happen to get a liquid liner with a brush applicator, you can always use your own eyeliner brush to apply.  The nice thing about liquid liners is that it has great color pay off and it stays put for a while unless it gets wet, however, it does tend to flake throughout the day.  Also, liquid liner usually doesn’t do too well in the waterline of you eye, so if you want to line the inner rims of your eyes, you’ll have to look into a pencil or gel liner as well.

recommended liquid liners:
L’oreal Lineur Intense
NYX felt tip liner
Prestige liquid liner
MAC penultimate liner

3. Gel liners

This is probably an eyeliner that some of you may not have heard of before, but is actually becoming more popular with consumers.  Gel liners come in a pot, and require a brush to be applied.  Gel liners are applied the same way as liquid liners, but are much more unforgiving when it comes to mistakes.  Gel liners are pretty much water proof and they have great staying power, which is why I use this eyeliner not only on myself, but on my clients as well, especially brides.  If you decide to start using gel liners, I suggest that you practice practice practice, because I find that nothing is more annoying than finishing my makeup off with eyeliner and having to take off all of my work because I couldn’t get the liner to match on both of my eyes.  I’ve been finding more and more gel liners at the drug store, so it’s a lot easier to find these days.

recommended gel liners:
MAC fluidline
L’oreal H.I.P gel liner
Maybelline cream liner
Stila smudge pot gel liner

recommended eyeliner brushes:
MAC 209
MAC 266
Sonia Kashuk bent eyeliner brush

Here is a picture showing how these different liners apply:

from left to right: liquid liner, pencil liner, and gel liner.

And here is a photo where I tried smudging the eyeliner to simulate how it would fade during the day.

from left to right: liquid liner, pencil liner, and gel liner.

As you can see, both the pencil and liquid liner had a good amount of smudging and fading but the gel liner held up pretty well with minimal wear.  However, deciding what liner is best for you just depends on what you need. I actually use each of these pretty equally depending one what look I’m going for for that day.  I hope this has helped you guys!

HUGE NYX SALE!

Hey everyone, I just thought I’d share this with you guys while I’m taking a break from studying. Tomorrow at 12 pm PST, NYX Cosmetics is going to be holding a huge huge HUGE sale for their 12 year anniversary. It’ll be going for 12 hours and if you guys haven’t tried out NYX already, it’s a great company to look into.  Their products are really great quality, and I actually use quite a few products on my clients as well as for my own personal collection. According to what one of the reps told me, most of their products are going to be $1.20 which is insane! I’m probably going to go through their site tonight to figure out what I absolutely need so I can go crazy tomorrow.  😀 Let me know if you guys pick anything up!

Christine-Laguna Beach

A couple weeks ago, Justin and I worked with Christine and Tim for their engagement shoot at Laguna Beach behind the Montage Resort.  I also had the privilege of working with Christine for her makeup and we aimed for a more dramatic eye and nude lip. Christine and Tim were a really fun couple and totally made being at the beach enjoyable for me which is saying a lot because I’m not a very beachy person.  Their wedding is in March 2012 and I can’t wait to work with them again! Congratulations! :)

CSULB PCN!

A couple months ago I was asked by one of the PCN coordinators to do the makeup for some of the characters for Pilipino Cultural Night at Cal State Long Beach.  For those of you who don’t know, PCN is a huge event that celebrates the culture and people of the Philippines.  I have been to a few different PCNs and was so amazed at how much love goes into the show that I couldn’t turn the offer down.  I have not worked in theater make up in a very long time and man was it stressful! I was on my feet for the majority of the day, and silly me, I was trying to break in a new pair of high heels (fail on my part). But all in all, I was so proud of the entire cast and show.  I got to have some creative freedom with a few of the characters which was so much fun, I haven’t had the opportunity to really be artistic with makeup in a very long time.  I don’t think I’ll be working in the theater makeup industry any time soon…I forgot how much pressure there is working as the only make up artist with tons of cast members! Once again, thank you so much to the PCN coordinators for giving me the opportunity to be apart of something amazing and I hope that I’ll be able to work with you guys again next year!  And congratulations again to all the amazing people who were a part of PCN this year, you guys were amazing! Here are just some photos from the day. :)

Photos courtesy of JustinElement Photography.

Baby Showers and Engagement Sessions

I’m so sorry I’ve been MIA.  I’ve just had so much to do for the past week but now that things are slowing down I’ll be able to post some more again.  So these next couple of posts will be out of order as I’m able to steal pictures from Justin haha. I had a few makeup jobs lined up for the past few weeks so I’ll be getting those out as soon as I can.  If you remember, I had my sister’s baby the Sunday before Easter and oh man, I am never going to try and bake dessert for a hundred people ever again. My back still hurts! But I must say all the cupcakes and cake pops turned out super cute.  Justin took a few pictures of the dessert table so I’ll post a picture or two.  :)

Anyway, the day before my sister’s baby shower, Justin and I had an engagement session with Anneli and Carlos and it was so much fun!  I worked with Anneli for the look she wanted for this shoot and we came up with a little bit more of a dramatic eye which I love doing!  Most ladies I work with want a more subtle makeup look and I was glad that Anneli was open to having a little bit of fun with her look. We shot at UCLA and Venice Beach.  I’ve never been to either, so it was great exploring new places.  I definitely want to go back to Venice Beach just to walk around and see all the cute small shops and crazy graffiti walls.  So yes, it’s been a busy couple of weeks but I’ll make sure to put some more posts up! Thanks again Anneli and Carlos for being AMAZING. You guys are so so so much fun and I can’t wait for the wedding 😀

PS Thank you Justin for editing these real fast…haha and sorry for my pestering!

 

15% off at Sephora!

Hey everyone! I just wanted to let you guys know that Sephora is have a sale for the next week both in stores and online! I believe everything is 15 percent off, so it’s a great time to go pick up some new stuff! Hopefully I’ll be able to stop by tomorrow after class…we’ll see though because I’m going to be super busy this weekend.  I’ve got to bake cake pops, cupcakes and other yummy stuff for my sister’s baby shower this Sunday (I’ll be sure to post some pictures of the stuff I make for you guys), Justin and I have an engagement shoot to take care of this Saturday, AND I’ve got an organic chemistry exam on Monday to study for! I swear, I think I need three of me to get everything done this weekend!

Inglot Cosmetics

So I’ve been promising this to you guys since I’ve gotten back from New York, and here it is: my thoughts on Inglot Cosmetics.  Inglot is a cosmetic company based in Poland and have just recently come to the United States. There are only a few stores here in the US but from what I’ve heard, they’re planning to expand some more within the next year.  But for now, Inglot now has an online store and you can freely order there.  I’ve heard that there’s a bit of a back up on the site though, so if you do order online, please be patient! It’s definitely worth the wait.  Inglot has this amazing system, appropriately called the Freedom System, which allows you to pick palettes and fill them with any shades of eyeshadow that you want.  These palettes come in a variety of sizes, ranging from 5 spots to 20, and let me tell you the price is definitely right.  Let me put it into perspective for you guys, say you buy a 15 slot palette from MAC.  Filling that entire palette up along with the palette itself will cost you 200 dollars.  When I went to New York, I bought a 20 slot palette from Inglot and paid only 85 dollars for it and the eyeshadows are about the same size as the MAC ones.  The quality of MAC and Inglot are extremely comparable, and I use both brands about the same.

The packaging of their palettes are pretty interesting.  The entire palette is magnetic, so your shadows snap in securely as does the lid when you put it on.  I see this both ways though.  I know that my eyeshadows are safe at all times because the magnets hold them in their place but this leads to my problem.  I cannot for the life of me rearrange any of my eyeshadows!  I was told to use the magnets on the lid to get my eyeshadows out but I have yet to figure out how to find a safe way to do that.  I’ll definitely let you guys know if I find a way how to!

The color variety Inglot offers in their Freedom System is incredible, if you’re looking for a certain shade I’m pretty sure they will have it–which is probably why I was in the store for an hour swatching colors on every possible spot on my hand.  If you’re reading this Justin, I’m sorry! I know I took forever in there, but it was so so so worth it. 😀 For me at least, poor Justin drove around in the city while waiting for me because there is no parking anywhere in New York.  And if you do park in one of those lots, it’s so expensive!  Anywho, when I get some time I’ll post some swatches up for you guys, but in the mean time, I hope you enjoy!

Caritina – Laguna Hills

Right after getting back from New York, Justin and I made our way to Laguna Hills to cover Caritina and Danny’s wedding.  It was at The Hills Hotel which is so so pretty!  Caritina had booked me to do the make up for herself and her bridal party and it was a lot of fun.  Caritina made such a beautiful bride, she designed her own wedding dress which I fell in love with her dress right when I saw it.  So I definitely know who I’m going to when the time comes!  If you guys haven’t seen it already, head over to Justin’s blog and go see for yourself. Right now.  But really, Danny and Caritina had a beautiful wedding and there was even a candy bar at the reception! Too bad I didn’t get to stand next to it all night and pig out on candy like I was planning to…but at least I got to have a lollipop in the morning. 😀  It was a really great start to the wedding season, congratulations again Danny and Caritina!

 

Val-New York

Last week, Justin and I were in New York taking care of Val and Jarrod’s engagement session, and I had the privilege of taking care of Val’s makeup for the trip.  We spent a few days in the city, going to different locations that they wanted to take pictures at.  It was so much fun! I had been to New York once before a few years back for a performance at Carnegie Hall and it was so good to be back.  I love how fast paced everything is over there and I can’t wait to go back again.  Although, I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to the subway system…we got lost every day and even the MTA lady sent us off in the wrong direction!  Is it weird that I loved walking everywhere?  It definitely could have been warmer though, I had about four layers of clothing on every day and I was still freezing!  It was still a great experience though.  Be sure to keep up with Justin’s posts, he’ll be putting the engagement session up in a few weeks. :)

 

Anyway, back to makeup.  I did Val’s makeup for two days, which was nice because I was able to create two different looks for her.  My main concern was the weather, since it was in the thirties pretty much the entire time we were there, so I really took my time priming and moisturizing Val’s face and making sure that her makeup stayed on all day because it was so windy! As you guys read earlier, I had such a hard time with the cold weather drying out my skin, I wanted to take every precaution to keep Val’s skin in good shape for her pictures.  Here’s a picture of Val’s look from the first day, I took it straight out of Justin’s camera so it’s unedited.

 

Oh and I need to mention, I took a detour to Inglot, which is an amazing makeup company that deserves a post of its own.  There’s only a few stores here in the US, and it’s been on my list of places to visit for the longest time.  They’ve got an online store up and running now, but I’m really picky with makeup (duh) so I like to be in person whenever I buy any new makeup.  I’m still playing around with what I bought, so I’ll let you guys know what my thoughts are within the next week or so.  I’ll let you know now though, from what I’ve used so far, things are definitely looking good. This spring break was absolutely amazing, I’ll also be posting up some pictures from the wedding we did this weekend.  Thanks again Justin for driving around for an hour in the city while I played in Inglot, you’re the best!

 

PS. I’m in the process of deciding what pictures I’m going to put in my portfolio, I’ll let you guys know when I start putting pictures up!