Salvaging a too pink foundation

The hardest thing in makeup is to get your base right. You need to find the good level of coverage, the right finish, the right tone and undertone and make sure your skin doesn't get any adverse reaction. Even though I have a ridiculously big make up collection, I do try not to accumulate too much foundations and I'm often on a challenge to finish a particular foundation.

For years I've been mistakenly "accused" of having a pink undertone, because my face has quite a lot of redness. A bit over a year ago, I realized that my skin was in fact neutral leaning on yellow and some of my favorite foundations had the wrong undertone. Always match your foundation with your chest and neck.

To understand how to neutralize something, you need to know about color theory. To opposite colors on the color wheel cancel each other. Therefor, to remove the red pigment from a foundation, you need to neutralize it with green. If you need your foundation to be yellow, you need to first use some green adjuster and then add some yellow. Various professional brands offer color adjusters that you can mix with your foundation.

Because I'm not a professional make up artist and that I don't have that many pink foundation left, I decided to neutralize my foundation with a green primer and then finish it with a yellow finishing powder. If you have strong yellow undertone though, buying adjusters might be a good investment. Women with fair skin tend to have less strong undertones.

The too pink foundation (It's a light coverage foundation, but trust me it's pink!)

adjusted version on the left, untouched on the right

As you can see, mixing the foundation with green turns it into a neutral shade. 

Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics lip tar in anime is my favorite bright lippie!

I previously review OCC lip tar in Queen previously and everything I said for this lipstick is applicable for this shade too. It is insanely pigmented, ultra long wearing (a solid 8 hours on me) and BRIGHT! This shade is a neon fushia pink that is rightfully named anime. Out of the two lip tars, this shade favorite, it is actually my favorite bright lipstick period. I wore this in France last weekend and I got a lot of looks. This is definitely a shade that you need to wear with confidence.

You can get this at several online retailer and at Sephora US and Canada.

A sneak peak of my husband watching TV

Would you wear this shade?

Laura Mercier foundation primer in radiance bronze

I'm not somebody who uses primers on a regular basis. My skin is quite dry and my pores are normal size and I don't see the necessity. I also need quite a solid medium coverage and I try to not layer too much. I already have quite an intricate skin care routine!

I do however love a nice healthy glow, so when I had the occasion to exchange my sephora points for a deluxe sample I was trilled! Laura Mercier is all about the skin and she has a very good selection of primers. She has two radiance primer, a pinkish shade and this bronze shade.

The first time I applied the radiance bronze I was chocked in a good way by the pigmentation. I don't think this particular shade was intended for really pale ladies like me. (I'm around an NC15) Now I mix it with my foundation and it warms up nicely the shade and gives a really nice glow.

bare faced 

With my foundation mixed with the primer 

Overall, I really like this primer. It's a very nice creamy texture that doesn't feel at all like silicone. It can be used under, mixed or over foundation. I do find the price in Belgium outrageous compared to the United States though. I might purchase it when I run out, but not at over 40 euros! 

Weight struggles and realizations

I don't think I ever posted a personal post before, but I think this is an issue that touches a lot of people and I think sharing makes it easier.

I've always struggled with my weight. I was a big baby who was constantly hungry. As a kid I was always the tallest one of my class till 6th grade and I was always hungry. I'm actually not that tall (1m74 or 5'8 1/2), but I did grow up faster than most kids and developed puberty younger than most girls. I'm an emotional eater.

My parents divorced when I was 8 and I kept on eating. One year later my Father left to live one year in France, I missed my dad a lot and kept on eating. Then I went to visit him and he was chocked by my weight and controlled my food. I lost around 10 pounds which is a lot for a 10 years old. Almost a year later my maternal Grandmother died of unnatural causes and I took the weight back and then some!

In my teens I lost and gained back some weight at least 3 times. I actually never knew life without the yo-yo effect. At 17 years old, I left my small town to move to Montreal for my school. I decided to lose weight and I kept it low (with a lot of variations of course) till I was around 23 years old.

At 21 years old in a shitty pub

When I was around 25 I started to gain dangerously weight, plummeting to a size 20 (22UK 50 in EU). I lost back some weight two years later and kept it stable at a size 16 till recently.

At my biggest ever at 26 years old

In November I decided to resume my weight lost and come back to a healthy weight. I lost 30 pounds (13,6 kilos) so far.

Realizations

To end up on a positive note here are some realizations that are currently helping me to carry-on smoothly with the weight loss:

• Exercise is good but doesn't make you loose weight. Your body as a tendency to compensate by spending less energy the rest of the day and making you hungry. I lost weight many many times, but never significantly by going to the gym. 

• Diets do not work. Counting calories isn't sustainable and the weight always creeps back up. You can't succeed by being constantly hungry. 

• If you do not loose weight one week it might be water retention, but it certainly isn't muscle gain! You do not gain a pound of muscle in a week!

• The low fat high carb approach doesn't works for me. I need fat in order to feel full and not overeat. I'm now on a ketogenic lifestyle (similar to paleo) and it is so much easier to lose weight. 

If you are also struggling with your weight (under or over) and feel like sharing your story, I would love to hear it!

Judith

Mac classics: lipstick in creme cup

When it comes to mac, I always had a tendency to stick to their eyeshadows and lipglosses. I know that about 90% of beauty bloggers seem to prefer lipsticks over lipglosses, but I personally prefer the glosses. However, when I want to go for a smokey eye, I prefer something a little more low profile on my lips.

Creme cup is part of the cremesheen finish from mac, which is essentially a satin finish.  The shade is a milky nude pink that will look more pink or more beige depending on you lips. It has the classic vanilla sent from mac, but the sent isn't overwhelming.  On me, it looks like a pale soft pink. It is quite similar in shade to the infamous Angel, the favorite shade of Kim Kardashian

The bump on my lips is a scar, I had 9 stitches in my bottom lip if anybody is wondering

The staying powder of this lipstick is quite average, I would say about 3 hours, which is common with pale shades. I does end up having the white ring inside your lips. It's definitely a shade you need to touch up every few hours. I don't think the formula is at fault for this, it's just the nature of pale shades. 

Allergie season can you tell?

Overall, I'm really please with this lipstick, the shade is very pretty and it feels great on the lips. It's the type of shade that will remind you that you need a teeth bleaching because of the mauve undertone. Like with other lipsticks from mac, I find the texture perfect, it's not too creamy that it has a tendency too fly all over your lips; and not too dry that it looks very dry when you wear it on. I love wearing this with a translucent beige gloss on top.

My favorite warm shades for the summer for eyes, lips and cheeks.

I'm back after a small hiatus, I decided to stop coffee and the withdrawals symptoms were not pretty! Now that I'm back to my normal self, I will catch up on my reading. I'm looking forward to reading your latest posts. 

Those of you who have been reading me for a while, will have noticed that I'm really into pinks and cool toned shades in general. Once in a blue moon I do like to get out of my comfort zone; and the three following products are my favorites in their respective category. 

Inglot pearl eyeshadow 407 is one of my favorite shade. If you are a fan of duochromes, this is definitely a nice one and it's very pigmented buttery and smooth. The staying power is also incredible. The pearl finish from Inglot is definitely my favorite one. The shade is a peach with a golden reflection, it looks more gold or more peach depending on the lighting.

I already talked about the Lancôme Blush subtil in Miel glacé. It's a shade that has been discontinued in the European market, but not in North America. Lancôme is not a brand I usually go for, except for mascara. I always associated the brand with ladies in their fifties. I'm happy to say that I was wrong. Their line of blushes is really nice, smooth and easy to blend. They are also easy to build up. This particular shade is a brownish apricot with a satin finish. I like that it's not too bright and it does a great job at hiding my redness on my cheeks and giving me a warm glow.

Left inglot 407, right Lancôme miel glacé

I think that in my collection of 30+ lip products, less than 5 are truly warm toned. This Lipglass from mac in Lychee Luxe is one of them. It's a very nice coral shade with a subtil shimmer. Depending on your lips it will look more orange or more pink. Like the rest of the lipglasses the finish is sticky and it lasts a solid 4 hours. 

wearing Lychee .Luxe

As you can see by the look above, all those shades go very well with each other. I'm wearing some bronzer in my eye crease and a bright purple eyeliner in the lower lash line.

What are your favorites shades for the summer?

Announcement second blog in French

Hi Everyone!

I just wanted to announce that I started a new blog in French called Pinceaux et cie. As most of you may know, I'm from Montreal and my first language is French. I also speak German and very basic Dutch.

I'm still adapting to my new Country and I can't say that I have a lot of friends yet, so I spend most of my weekends alone. (My husbands often works on weekends, he works in the shipping industry) Blogging definitely keeps me busy and help me to share my passion with equally passionate people.

I hesitated between just alternating my paragraphs between French and English on my blog, but I decided against it. I find it easier to read in only one language.

The posts will be very similar to the posts here, so you don't need to follow both.

À bientôt

Judith