Makeup Tips | The Conscious Snob

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Makeup Geek Talks with The Conscious Snob

Oct 20th, 2008 | By Beauty Snob | Category: Conscious Beauty

Rating 4.33 out of 5

Marlena from Makeup Geek has grown into an online phenomenon among women who love makeup or want to give it a try. Her youtube videos offer detailed tutorials on how to make any look work. The Conscious Snob was able to ask Marlena a few questions about how she started this project and her favorite products.

How did your passion and skills with makeup start?

Since I was just a little girl, I loved putting makeup on my Barbie Head and doing it’s hair. And when I got bored with that, I would have my mom be my “model.” I have always been a girly girl of some sort, but really got into makeup last year when my friend Lauren took me to my first MAC store in Chicago. All the gorgeous colored lipsticks, the brushes, the rainbow of eyeshadows– I felt like I was in heaven! So, I purchased my first “high end” products, and practiced as much as I could. My passion continued to grow, and I couldn’t wait until the next day when I could try a different look. The end of that year, I quit my job as a music teacher and became a makeup artist.

How did you start your website and make it grow?

I started the site by first doing makeup tutorials on youtube. Once my audience grew bigger, my husband and I realized that we needed a website to help the many women who wanted to make themselves look and feel better. So, we started the site makeupgeek.com to help those who wanted to learn everything they could about makeup. By word of mouth and through youtube exposure, the site has been growing very fast!

What type of skin care regimen would you recommend to women who want healthy and beautiful skin? What about your favorite products?

To achieve that healthy skin, you really need to do 4 steps each day: cleanse, exfoliate, tone, and moisturize. It sounds pricey and a lot of hassle, but it takes next to no time to add 1 or 2 steps that make a big difference in the condition of your skin. My favorite skincare products are by Mary Kay, and I love St. Ives Apricot Scrub to exfoliate.

What are your top 5 beauty/makeup products?

Makeup Forever Concealer Palette
Makeup Forever HD Powder
MAC Fix+ Spray
Bourjois Clubbing Mascara
MAC Dazzleglass Lipglosses

What advice do you have for women who are new to makeup and want to start experimenting?

Take baby steps. Start by wearing mascara, then add concealer, foundation, eyeliner, etc. Always remember that movie stars have professionals applying a full face of makeup, and even then have their pictures edited quite a bit. So don’t expect miracles overnight- in time you will find “your” look!

The most impact you can have starting out will be to wear mascara, a little concealer, lipgloss, and a bit of eyeshadow smudged along the upper lashline to make the lashes look thicker. If you feel confident in applying those items, you can move on to adding blush, eyeshadows, and foundation.

Marlena’s favorite look is Ashanti’s fierce eyes, and below is the video of that tutorial. Be sure to check it out and also look at her other videos. We hope this inspires you to experiment and have fun with makeup!

See youtube video here.

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Lasting Makeup Tips for a Night Out

Sep 8th, 2008 | By The Conscious Snob Community | Category: Conscious Beauty

Rating 3.75 out of 5

Many of my friends often ask me how my makeup stays so beautifully intact at the end of a long night of partying. Here, I’ll share a few of my techniques that I rely on to help me stay looking good through many occasions!

Double Your Eyeliner, Tight-line Your Lashes

Eyeliner that smudges or disappears altogether is a problem many girls experience, and the biggest complaint I’ve received. Although there are many products out there that claim to be waterproof or water-resistant, I think that the combination of body sweat, the natural oils produced by the skin, and the humidity in bars and clubs is still too strong a force for most eyeliners. I’m sure many of you will agree with me! To combat this, I suggest two techniques: (1) layering your eyeliner and (2) “tight-lining.”

To layer my eyeliner, I use both a pencil liner and a liquid liner to line my eyes. I first generously trace my eyes with an Almay eyeliner in “Black Brown” two or three times, making sure the product goes on nice and thick. Then, I carefully go over it once more with a M.A.C. Liquid Liner. This really helps seals the eyeliner in its place and makes it more immune to the destructive nature of the skin’s oils and body moisture.

“Tight-lining” requires putting liquid liner in between the roots of the lashes and closer to the eye. I would highly recommend using a liquid liner with a foam tip to reduce discomfort and irritation to the surface of the skin around the eye. Try Lancome’s Artliner in Noir. To apply, look down into a stand mirror so when you gently lift up your eyelid you can clearly expose and see the roots of your eyelashes. Carefully and gently reach in with your liner tip from beneath your lashes and make dots in between the roots. Make sure to let the product fully dry before you release your eyelid. So even if the rest of your eye makeup disappears during your night out, your eyes will still look striking because they’re defined with liquid liner from underneath your lashes.

Prime Your Lids to Make Colour Stick

Instead of using products that are specifically designed and advertised to be primers, I use what works best for me. I prep my eyelids with a bit of foundation and Shiseido’s Spot Concealer. A thin, well-blended mix of each product on top of each of my eyelids helps my shadow and liner stay put.

I know many girls are opposed to using foundation for a variety of reasons. Ironically, these are the same girls who tend to need it the most. For girls who have oily skintypes or for those who are prone to sweat easily, I encourage you to do a little bit research for a sheer foundation that controls for both oil and shine. Foundation helps control the excretion of oil, fills in pores, and creates a matte surface for a smooth and long-lasting application of makeup for your eyes and the rest of your face. I discovered that Paul and Joe’s Light Cream Foundation actually gets enhanced when mixed with the skin’s natural oil and moisture, and gives the skin a very dewy look!

Conceal the Flaws

To avoid looking excessively haggard, drunk or sweaty at the end of the night, you must conceal any signs of blemishes, bags, dark circles, or pores at the beginning of the night. Not only that, you must not be lazy in touching-up periodically. I am lucky – my only major problems are dark circles underneath my eyes. I highly recommend Amazing Cosmetics’ Amazing Concealer in Ultra Light. This is my holy grail of all concealers, and believe me, I have tried A LOT of concealers. A little bit of this product gives a lot of coverage. And best of all, it is both emollient and waterproof!

Be Sure to Mind These “Don’ts”

Don’t use a product (particularly eye shadow) that is both in powder form and has a lot of shimmer. I guarantee that by the end of the night, the shimmer particles will end up all over your face in all the unwanted places.

Don’t attempt to blot away sweatiness and redness in your skin with your compact powder. Trust me, everyone will notice the thick, cakey mask you’ll inevitably end up with. Instead, take a few seconds to blot away moisture on your skin either with blotting paper or paper towels from the ladies’ room. Don’t forget to touch up the skin along the areas around your hair and jaw line. I’ve seen many girls, both in pictures and in real life, who have evidently sweated off their foundation or powder and are left with distinct lines of exposed skin of another shade along their foreheads, and the sides of their cheeks and jaws. It’s extremely unsightly!

Don’t rush through your makeup application. Beauty comes at a cost and in this particular case, if you want longer-lasting makeup, careful and precise application is key. I know that we busy girls don’t always have the luxury of having a lot time in getting ready to go out, but if you do, be sure to prime your lids, tight-line your lashes, and make stops to the ladies room throughout the night. If you adopt these beauty habits, I promise you will be walking away from the night with a beautiful, streak-free face even if the party ends at 3 A.M.!

lastingbeauty4 Lasting Makeup Tips for a Night Out

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This article was contributed by Kimberly Chu. Be sure to also check out Kimberly’s piece on Beauty In The Morning, Fresh At Night.