Red Carpet Makeup at the 2011 Oscar's

I love checking out all the celebrities working the red carpet on Oscar night.  What are they wearing?  How is their hair?  And of course I ALWAYS check out the makeup.  Most celebrities don't like to take too much of a risk on red carpet nights, no one really wants to be on the "worst dressed" list.  Some might...but that's a different blog post all together.

Here are some of my favourite looks of the night.

Let's start with the star of the evening, winning Best Actress for her role in "Black Swan".  Miss Natalie Portman.  Such a natural beauty, just had such a beautiful glow to her.  I love her baby belly :)

I thought that host Anne Hathaway looked so beautiful last night too.  I love her fair skin and ruby lips.  Classic!  LOVE IT!

Reese Witherspoon, cute as a button as always.  Love her!

And one of my all time favourite actresses, Cate the Great.  God I love her!  She is so damn beautiful!!!

I love her dress too, she looks so elegant yet natural.  This is one of my favourite looks of the night.

Some people have been saying negative thing about Scarlett's look, but I think she looked beautiful.  Yes her hair is messy, but her makeup looks fresh yet sultry and her dress was HOT!!!

And Gwyneth, she ALWAYS looks stunning.  She looks like a blond Goddess!  I loved her look last night too.  I swear she hasn't aged a bit!

 

I love Michelle's pixie cut, I think it is so perfect for her face.  And I love the contrast between her blonde hair and dark eyebrows, I think it makes her look more interesting.  I wish people would get off the whole "her eyebrows don't match", I think it looks great!

 

And Mandy, she's as cute as a button too don't you think?  Her in Reese belong in their own special cute club.

 And Jennifer Hudson looked radiant in her slim and trim new body.  Love the orange coloured dress on her.  But I do think she went a little over board with the body shimmer, a little is good but just not too much.

So who did you think rocked the red carpet?  Who was on your best/worst dressed list?  I want to hear all about it, post below!

Girls Night Out, TOSH Class of 94!

Last night I had 4 of my very good friends from high school over to my house for a makeup and dancing party.  Because of the bad weather not everyone was able to make it but we made the best of it, and well, we are not known to shy away from a party!  EVER!  I have known these girls for soooooo long.  Lots of history together, lots of laughs and lots of shenanigans.  Guaranteed!

So here are my girls at the beginning of the night, without makeup :)  Aren't they pretty?!

This is Tricia before...she actually never wears makeup and was a little apprehensive about the "make over"

And here is Tricia after...sassy!

And here is Angie's before...

And Angie's after...

I didn't get before and afters of Lisa and Kari but here is our group photo before we hit the bars...

And here we are bustin' a move at the Globe.  ***Special note:  blue gum is very, very obvious in photos.  Do not recommend blue gum!

And this is how the night ended...oh dear....sorry Sir John A...I'm thinking it may not have been a first though...

My Arab Inspired Contest Entry

I decided to enter an online contest for an Arab inspired makeup look.  I only had a small window of opportunity to get it done today (30 minutes), so it's not the most detailed look ever but pretty all the same.  I'm not holding my breath to win or anything, it's just fun to submit my look and see what others think of it.

So here it is:

I think a golden, or bronze coloured eyeshadow would have looked more traditional, but I had some new green shades that I hadn't used before and I've been really wanting to do a look with them, hence the green look today.  What do you think?  Maybe I should have glued some gems on too....

MAC's Jeanius Collection Spring 2011

MAC comes out with so many different collections, it's hard to keep track of them all.  But every once in a while, there's one that really grabs you.  For some it was the Wonder Women, or the Venomous Villains collections, not so much for me thanks.  But the newest one that does speak to me, is the Jeanius Collection.  I'm a self proclaimed jean queen.  It's my wardrobe staple.  And I'm totally excited for MAC's newest collection devoted to denim!

MAC describes this collection as:

"A denim inspired collection of moody blues and indigo ink, the quantum of modern cool, with four new limited eyeshadows, lipsticks and lipglasses, blush and nail lacquer."

Check out the incredible attention to detail!  Don't you love it?!

What do you think?  Are you loving it as much as me???

How to Look Good While Hitting the Slopes (or any winter sport)

I'm just getting back from a ski vacation in Mont Saint Anne, Quebec.  And while I want to look good when I'm out skiing, I also don't want to take much time getting ready because the early bird gets the fresh groomed trails!

So my secret is the KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid)!  I use as much waterproof products as possible (so you don't look look a raccoon) and also using as much hydrating and moisturizing products as I can.

So here I am heading out at 8:30 AM to hit the slopes (I haven't put on my helmut yet but I definitely do wear one).  And um, believe me, I know this is no glamour shot.

I use waterproof mascara and gel eyeliner.  A neutral eyeshadow all over the lid.  Cream blush set with powder and lots of Blistex lip conditioner with an SPF (it's really easy to get your lips sun burnt or even wind burnt from skiing).  And that's it, a simple less then 5 minute routine to get you out the door quick and still look good, all day long!

La Femme Blush

I've heard a lot about La Femme blushes over the past year.  Like how intensely pigmented they are and how they are really reasonably priced.  A lot of makeup artists rave about these blushes and I've only heard positive reviews, so I've been dying to try them out.  So when I ordered my z palettes I also decided to get the La Femme blush palette.

Everything I've heard about these blushes are true!  They are crazy pigmented.  You barely need to swipe your brush against the blush to and it picks up loads of product, and the colour payoff is amazing!  And since this palette is really designed for professional makeup artists, I love that it is designed with all cool colours on the top row and all warm colours on the bottom row.  That makes it so convenient for colour selection when designing a makeup look.

Here are the colours swatched on my arm, starting with the top row.  And by the way, I hardly used any product for these swatches, they are so intense!  You really want to use a light hand when you are applying these blushes.

And these are the warm blushes from the lower row...

(Sorry for the hairy arm photos...never realized how hairy my arms look!)

And the cherry on top, this palette with 12 blushes is only $46.99US.  Compare that to MAC's pro blush pan which is $16.50US each, a palette this size with MAC blushes would cost you about $198US.  So the La Femme blushes are a steal!  And they have better colour pay off then most of MAC's blushes.   I would give La Femme blushes an A+!

New Makeup Palettes!

I love makeup.  No shocker there, right?  And I love to organize.  So, you can just imagine how I feel when these two things are combined!  Oh yes, nirvana baby!

I just opened up my latest purchase and I'm freaking out!  Why didn't I own these before?  Why????  Ok, I'll tell you what I got, I purchased 2  Z Palettes.   One in black and one in zebra print.

Have you heard of these?  They are a makeup artist's dream come true.  It's a makeup palette with a clear, see through cover.  So you can see what's inside your palettes!  Before, I had all my MAC eyeshadows and blushes in the MAC palettes.  Which is nice because they are all contained in one palette but the big draw back to MAC's palettes are that they are not see through and if you have a lot of palettes (which I do) you have to open them all up in order to see what's in side.  A total pain in the neck.  But not with the Z Palette!  *  However, I was at the MAC store this weekend and the manager was telling me that MAC is coming out with a new style palette, similar to the quads with the clear cover and they should be available sometime this summer.  Nice!

So I got right to work and emptied out my old MAC palettes and reorganized them into my new Z palettes.  I still have 2 MAC palettes left in my kit so I'll either buy 2 more z palettes or I may wait to see what MAC comes out with this summer.

So here are my new palettes filled with eyeshadows:

The black palette has all my MAC light to medium tone eyeshadows...

The zebra palette has all my MAC pink, purple, silver and gray eyeshadows.  As well as some Urban Decay shades (the square ones) and Laura Mercier (the rectangle ones) and the large purple one is a Make Up For Ever eyeshadow.   That's another bonus to the Z palette, it will hold any shaped pan (circle, square, round) unlike the MAC palettes that only hold MAC sized circle pans.  And if you really need another bonus to the Z Palette over the MAC palette, it holds more pans then MAC's too.  These 2 Z Palettes replaced 4 MAC palettes.  Which means less bulk in my kit, which is awesome.

I will definitely be  adding more Z Palettes to my kit.  Not just for eyeshadows,  I'd like to have my blushes in a Z Palette too so I can easily see all my shades.