Make up favorites!

Some times ago I wrote that it’s difficult for me to define my make-up holy grails. In part, it is true.

I am a huge make-up fan: I love to experiment new formulas, textures, colors, tools, brands, looks.

So I try a lot of things but just some of those truly impress me and really a few in the end become one of those things without which my life would be (a little bit) worse.

These few have to have some fundamental qualities: be very useful, quick and easy to use, perfect formula for my skin, extremely good quality, long lasting.

And looking back, they are products that I’d never stop to re-buy and that are staples in my make-up bag since years.

Yesterday night I was thinking how much I would suggest them to every girl in the planet if I could… Then writing a post is the least I could do!

(I searched some cute pictures to pair with my mini-reviews but I didn’t find anything so I decided to make some drawings… They’re not that good but at least they are some color in a boring black and white post.)

BENETINT from Benefit

This is something magic. In fact, it’s quite famous and surely I’m not the first one that’s talking about it.

In a few words, it is the one and only thing that is able to give a nice, subtle and natural flush to your cheeks, from morning till the moment you de-make up, whatever you do during the day.

Still I am surprised sometimes when I come home, I look in the mirror and it’s still there, after 8 or 9 hours of work in the lab and the “trip” back home in the terrible Belgian weather.

If I don’t wear it my skin is grey, it looks thin and tired and I feel at least 5 years older. With the Benetint instead I still look fresh and put together, even at 7 pm after a terrible day.

The secret is in its formula: it is a very light, liquid stain. It is dark red in the bottle but when applied it melts with your skin and it makes it fresh and rosey.

I usually apply it under my foundation (it takes one second, it looks even more natural and lasts forever), but you can apply it over the make-up (I tend to do this not too often: it mixes with the foundation and you have to brush it in more to make it perfect) or on bare skin.

You can buy it in Sephoras worldwide. Online I suggest HQhair.com

I would be lost without it, really!

MAC Russian Red (Mat lipstick)

I already told you that I’m recently converted to the red lipstick religion, and this one is really really a good one.

My concern when I bought it was, among the others, that it would fade soon and look ugly and trashy. Instead, I can tell you what I did with this one the first time I put it on: wore it three hours, smoke a couple of cigarettes, drank a coke from the can, ate a snack (not really a lipstick-respectful girl). Still perfect. It’s true that I was careful, but still.

I recommend a lipliner though, to make it last even longer (I use “brick” lip liner from MAC)

It is also a very beautiful shade of red: pure, deep but not too dark and a little blue-undertoned (= whiter teeth and brighter complexion). The texture is also very nice and easy to apply.

(Ah! It’s also the one that Gwen Stefani is using since ages, I discovered it when I was searching for a pic on the internet!)

This lipstick is a new love, but a big one!

DIORSHOW mascara by Dior

What can I say?

In my opinion, it’s just the perfect mascara. Really. Volumize, strengthens, elongate. My lashes are something like doubled but they still look very good and soft (no, for sure it doesn’t leave that concrete-like effect that make look you lashes like one unique block of stone). Plus, it’s super shiny black. And a black mascara have to be REALLY black to be the best.

The only downside is that it’s a bit pricey, but my super good alternative (14 euros!) is the MAC zoom lash mascara:

This one also elongates and enhances your lashes like crazy, plus it lasts really all day long and it doesn’t melt with summer sweat and rain (and tears!) even if it’s not waterproof. I love it and I always buy it when I feel too broke for the Diorshow  (ahah poor me!)

And you? Did you ever tried these products? Do you like them as much as I do?

Al

PS: The Drawings. One of the reasons why I opened this blog was to have a motivation to start to draw again and share it in order to improve. It was 10 years that I wasn’t drawing almost anything… And what drawing is for me has something to do with the story of a girl that at 3 was using one printer-paper pack every two or three days, that at 8 bought her first Vogue Italia and draw her first imaginary clothing collection inspired to Missoni’s stripes (the model was exclusively Claudia Schiffer) and that as a teen stopped to draw and paint because she thought she lost her talent and inspiration… Maybe I’ll tell you this story one day, but I have to find the way to make it a bit more interesting first!

Anyway, it was just to warn you not to be scared if you see a drawing suddenly pop out in the middle of some of my posts from now on ;-)