A weekly round-up beauty products, videos, and tips I learned, loved, hated, misunderstood, and might try again!

FACE:

So, I’ve always considered Black Radiance’s Color Perfect Liquid Makeup one of the best liquid foundations for black women, and for me in particular. I’m a very in-between shade of brown as I’m sure we’re all aware, you hear a lot of (often over the top, but sometimes legit) light skin vs. dark skin debates, but what if you’re medium? I’m not light skin, I’m not dark skin. I’m more on the darker side, but my skin tone is not as swarthy as say’s Alek Wek, so I’m left out of the conversation and I’m just dark enough to sometimes not even get a color on the foundation spectrum from a number of brands (though some labels have gotten much better). For many brands, I just made the cut in using the last “brown” shade that’s more tan than cocoa.

My shade from the Color Perfect Oil-Free Liquid Makeup line is Mocha Honey and it was really a co-worker of mine that pointed out how well it matched my skin. This buddy at work knew I wore makeup regularly and that one day I wore this line, he stopped me and affirmed that I needed to keep using that it because it looked the most natural. Since then, I’ve loved BR’s foundation. I buy it every once in awhile and recently I bought a new one from Target (only $4.99!). When I used it the next day and distributed on my skin with my hands, I immediately felt a difference. It wasn’t smooth like water at all. It was almost tacky-like, glue-y. I didn’t understand. It never felt like this before. Before, I would put it and with smearing and blending, it would settle perfectly. I made the mistake of continuing to wear it the next three days and by the fourth, my skin had broken out. Ugh. Why did I keep using it knowing that something might had been potentially wrong with it? A friend and I agreed that considering I had used the product before, maybe it had been expired. It must’ve been expired. I’ve used Color Perfect before with great results. The lesson here? If you can, remember and/or the product you’ve chosen is the last on the shelf, it may be better to wait for a newer shipment. I’m now paranoid about Color Perfect because what if they’ve also just changed the formula?

I always need brushes because I wear makeup almost everyday and while I continue to dream of Lancome, MAC, and Sigma brushes in my beauty arsenal, I have to find good alternatives until then. Recently, as a part of their Holiday 2014 collection, Wet ‘n Wild has packaged 5-set of brushes under their Fergie collaboration, an they’re pretty decent! What I really liked and wanted was the eyebrow brush and comb, blush brush, and face powder brush. I’ve been using them for about two weeks now and I’m satisfied. If you see them at your local drugstore, it’s being sold at a discounted $9.99/$10.00!

EYES:

Models Own is a makeup brand from the U.K. that started out with nail polishes used by very popular nail salons and nail artists like WAH Nails, but they’ve since expanded to eyes, lips, and face products. The first product I used by them was their version of the BeautyBlender that was sold at Urban Outfitters. The original Blender cost $19.99 for one, so to get two for approximately $8-$10 was a steal. It worked very well (but please be sure to clean them every time you use a makeup blender. SERIOUSLY. It’ll spread germs!) but I haven’t seen their products anywhere else until I was back home in Boston and at Forever 21 where they sell Models Own eyeliners, lip glosses, and mascara. I’m a mascara girl so I reached for theirs to try.

The Big Brush costs $10 in U.S. dollars. The brush is good as a layer, but I wouldn’t use it alone. It was a bit on the too-natural, too-subtle, kind of just boring side of mascara for me. A lot of formula isn’t in it and while the brush is brush and fluffy, I just needed a bit more. I don’t think I’ll buy it again, but I liked trying it out. The website will tell you it thickens, but really it just lightly fans your lashes out.

And here’s the big one…!

I discovered the makeup artist Charlotte Tilbury when I was looking up cat-eye tutorials on YouTube. Her feline flick video is great and it eventually got a million views. While already a working artist (MUA) for years now, she’s really blown up in 2014 which I think contributes to her YouTube and high-profile opportunities, like doing the makeup for that V Magazine cover shoot with Rihanna and Kate Moss and painting the faces of Cara Delevigne and Kim Kardashian. Earlier in the fall, though it had already arrived internationally, her namesake makeup line arrived stateside, but is sold exclusively at Bergdorf Goodman in New York City (and their website and Nordstrom online). I was at first disappointed by the prices ($29 is the average) but I still wanted to check it out for myself because I enjoyed her videos.

I swatched the lipsticj which were smooth and the colors are rich, and Tilbury has created tons of different looks with her line. Of course, again, I was eyeing the mascara, the Full Fat Lashes. These kind of mascara brushes that are big, wide, and bristly and often full of formula are kind of IT right now, like Urban Decay’s Perversion, Too Faced’s Better than Sex, and Bobbi Brown’s Extreme Party.

I had first tried it on my bottom lashes because I was already wearing makeup when I stopped by Bergdorf’s. Soon as a gift to myself, I got Full Fat Lashes so I could really test it out.

The line promises that this mascara will do everything you’ll want from a mascara: lengthening, volumizing, curling, darkening, and separation. Let’s see..

I did notice that my formula seemed less goopy than the one I tried at the makeup counter. In the tube I bought, it was dispensed sparingly. When I began to apply it after using an eyelash curler, it was doing everything it promised, but just not to the magnitude that I felt I saw on my bottom lashes, which got spidery, or that you might imagined. I did like what I was seeing however. It gently coated every lash and curve, it was easy to build up on, and when I looked back at the mirror, I was satisfied with how my lashes transformed to a subtly dramatic falsie effect. I still wish it was cheaper (it cost $29 plus tax, it was roughly $31 and some change), but the outline of which my lashes had with the mascara, I would buy this again.

MAKEUP TIP OF THE WEEK: Tyra Bank’s “Miss Ty Ty” Alternative to Really Finding Your Cheekbones. No More Fishy Faces!

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