Lipstick Smash

photo courtesy of amlp311.blogspot.com

You all know what lipstick do for women.  It can change our mood, ourselves, the meaning of life!  Well, maybe not the last part, but it does give us a great opportunity to showcase our puckers. Now that you've understood the importance of color and of cool/warm hues, pick out a few shades for yourself!  Example:  an olive medium toned Hispanic woman may look better in an orangey red or even a burgundy lipstick while a really pale peaches and cream allergic to sunshine type of gal will do well to choose a blue red lipstick.  Sales Associates at any makeup counter will be happy to help you determine which shades go better with your skintone, but beware, (or go with a girlfriend to play it safe) as they may be only focused on making a sale!



Wearing Lipstick

• Begin with clean lightly moisturized lips. (I'm a fanatic of lip balm)
• If you have feathering or flaking of skin, slough off dead skin with a mixture of olive oil and sugar!
• Line lips with a nude/natural tone lip pencil. (In school we learn to line from outer corner to inner corner or cupid's bow)
• If your lips naturally are darker or have a lot of color, either use foundation or a product such as Laura Gellar's Lip Spackle to stiple the beigey color over your lips before using lip color.

photo courtesy of forum.hawaaworld.com

•  Choose a shade or two of lipstick and fill in lips either straight from the tube or with a lip brush for more precision.
• If you wish to blend two (or more colors) or even mix and match a lipstick with a gloss you can do so on your lips or on your palette using a palette knife.
• Scrape off lipstick color thinly from the back of the lipstick
• Add another lipstick color, a tint, gloss, whatever you want to the palette.
• Using the knife, scrape and blend all colors together to achieve the right shade/consistency.
• Now you have a unique color that's all YOU!
• Add a dash of high shine gloss in the middle of your lower lip pout for fuller looking lips.

Simply Superficial TIP #1:  Set with a tissue by blotting and reapplying.  Then lightly brush translucent powder through the tissue for ultimate staying power.

Simply Superficial TIP #2:  Stick one index finger into your mouth and close your mouth as your pull your finger out. Sounds kinda kinky but the remnants of lipstick that WOULD have gotten all over your pearly whites are now on your fingers... wipe off.


Simply Superficial TIP #3: If you believe your lips are too plump (no such thing!!) or too thin... play with the lip liner, line slightly outside the edge for a thin lip and slightly inside the lip line for a fuller lip.

Simply Superficial TIP #4:  If you want the focus to be on your lips (say, red sassy lipstick) go easy on the eye makeup and blush!  There's nothing like overkill to take your from looking fierce to looking like a straight up clown.

Simply Superficial TIP #5: To make yellow teeth appear more white, use colors with blue-ish undertones, asking sales associates for help can make this easy for anyone.

Simply Superficial TIP #6: If you're in a tight jam, lipstick can sub for a blush!




I will be adding tips occasionally so I hope you had fun reading...





Keep Color'in!  xoxox.

Makeup: getting started

What every good artist needs, a set of brushes, palette knife, and colors.  A good brush rinse and alcohol sprays are good for sanitizing... but this is for those of you whom want to learn makeup to practice on yourself, rather than make it a vocation... a makeup artist by trade spends a ton of time sanitizing btw... safety's always first!

Brushes: implements for placement and blending of colors.  This is kind of a no-brainer.  Brushes differ with the fibers (hair) used whether it is animal hair or synthetic plastic bristles.

 photo courtesy of buycheapmakeupandtips

Generally, if you're buying a powder, blush, eyebrow, eyeshadow, angled eyeliners etc... it is good to go with a decent quality animal hair brush.  When using flat foundation brushes or even fine eyeliner brushes, synthetic may be a better choice.  The reason is that the synthetic bristles impede bacteria growth so while using things that are more "wet" or have more slip, such as liquid foundation and liquid eye liner, it is better to go with using a synthetic, or else get used to washing brushes everyday!

Palette Knife:  is an actual knife that scrapes off color.

photo courtesy of ffcrafts

I'm showing a picture of the many types of artists' palette knifes however, you only need one.  What is this good for?  My favorite palette knife has lasted me years and enables me to blend all sorts of lipcolors together as well as stick foundations to suit a perfect shade.   You use the sharp end to scrape or cut off some makeup and the flat edge to mix and mash the colors until you have one unique color that's especially YOU!

Colors: Are the most fun part of all!  A plethora of eyeshadows, bases, foundations, powders, eyeliners, lipsticks ... what is makeup if not a wide array of colors with what we use to color our lives?

photo courtesy of alceevents

You thought diamonds are a girls' best friend? I'm here to tell you that the real best friend is color!  They have the ability to brighten, to widen, to POP!, to encourage, to motivate, and to brave the world... nothing is as fierce as a woman who entrances the world with a bright red lipstick!

Armed with these tools we are ready to move full throttle forward!