fly far: all made-up

hi guys!

today i'd like to talk make-up, if you care to read :)

for a while now i have just been "over" my drab, same-since-college make-up routine & wanting to try some new products. i asked all my friends on facebook here, watched tons of youtube videos and read beauty blogs to get ideas of what kinds of products i would like to switch to and which products would be best for my skin tone and budget. speaking of budget, i originally set one of $60, but quickly realized that buying entirely new make-up for everything would definetly exceed that, so i re-calculated my budget to $100.

foundation.

for starters, i knew i wanted to switch out my bare minerals foundation and try a liquid or creme foundation. choosing a foundation was hard & choosing it online was even harder since there are so many options out there! i ended up going with revlon's colorstay whipped cre'me foundation in medium beige A) because of its attractive price B) because it seems to blend very well and i read that you can start light and work your way up to medium coverage if needed C) back in high school i remember using a mousse foundation and loving it, so im hoping its like that! keep your fingers crossed it works out for me!

bronzer.

when deciding on a bronzer, my biggest dilemma was deciding between a matte bronzer and a bronzer with a little bit of a shimmer to it. i went back and forth between bobbi brown medium bronzer and nars laguna bronzer until i decided on nars laguna illuminator. it seems to lighten up the face a little bit more than regular breonzer and its easy application doesnt even require a brush, plus its very compact for traveling. (my upcoming 3-month trip to thailand is being taken into consideration, too!) i just hope its pretty on me!

concealer.

i went for a product by benefit called "boi-ing" because there's not a day i leave the house without at least dabbing concealer under my eyes and on blemishes if i have them and this stuff is said to work wonders. i currently use revlon colorstay blemish concealer and am just ready to try something not so liquid. (i am selling a brand-new revlon colorstay blemish concealer for super cheap on ebay if anyone needs one!) it's great stuff, dont get me wrong, but im ready to try something new and i hope boi-ing works for me.

highlighter.

it was actually this post that inspired me to purchase a highlighter pencil. i dont currently use any sort of highlighter and would really like to start. it can be applied under your eyebrow (on the brow bone), on the cheekbones and down the bridge of your nose to reflect light and give you that "dewy" look that i love.

mascara.

i currently use colossal volume express mascara by maybelline and love it, but read so many great rants about maybelline "falsies" that really want to give it a try. mascara here in israel costs a fortune, so my mom's going to ship some over :) and i always, always curl my lashes! i feel like it really opens your eyes.

eyeliner.

black eyeliner is essential if you want to enlarge your eyes and it seems to have a dramatic effect on me especially, being blonde, so i want to try bobbi brown gel eyeliner. i currently use a pencil and i find that at the end of the day it has smudged or worn off and just looks bad, so im excited to try this long-wear gel eyeliner.

blush.

blush is something i dont use and i dont know why. sadly, i dont even own blush! i think it really pulls your face together and provides that pop of color to the apples of your cheeks that i love, so i want to invest in laura mercier blush. im sure there are great drugstore blushes out there, but again makeup here is so expensive, i mine as well find a great brand for a great price online, which is what i will do. plus, i love a tone that is soft pink, i cant imagine that the orangey and darker blushes would work on me.

lips.

i do nothing to my lips except bite them all day. my current go-to for lips is labello, but thats boring, right?! so i read here about how to achieve kim kardashians signature "lip look" and im goin' for it! i love pretty pink lips but dont think ive ever worn lipstick, let alone a lipliner, so im really puttin myself out there, ha! no, but the nars turkish delight lipgloss can be worn alone, so if the lipstick doenst work out for me, i can fall back on the gloss alone. score.

brows.

brows basically frame your face and, in my opinion, are so important. my sister was blessed with perfectly thick and beautifully shaped eyebrows while mine are basically non-existent. no, but seriously they are so blonde (especially in the summer!) they are almost invisible, plus i totally over pluck them, but thats another story. so i need to fill them in. daily. i currently own the brow zings kit (#15 below) and love it, but i feel like i could use a little something extra to help me with these brows, so i am going to purchase the anastasia perfect brow pencil. i read that using tiny strokes can give the appearance of real brows. much needed over here!

primer.

in the past i used bare minerals foundation primer and when it ran out i was too lazy to buy more, even though i really liked using it. i felt like the primer kept my face moisturized throughout the day and helped even out my makeup application. but instead of just going with what i knew and purchasing that same foundation primer, i read tons of reviews and have decided to go for smashbox photo finish foundation primer in apricot. this particular primer is said to conceal under eye circles, veins, and sunspots. yes, please!

makeup setting spray.

ive never used a setting spray and dont know how i will feel about this, but i want to give it a whirl. you just spritz all over your face to sort of "set" your makeup so everything stays in place and perfect. why not, right?

now, the key to this whole thing is i found what i wanted and then googled the hell out of it until i found it for the cheapest either on ebay, amazon or a cosmetics wholesale website or store. i actually came across great buy where i purchased items 4 & 5 below for very fair prices (let's just hope the site isn't a scam and the items really do arrive!!!). the collage below consists of products i have just recently purchased or plan to purchase within the next few days, after doing a little more research on where to buy. im a jew, what can i say! :)

i would LOVE to hear your make-up routine and find out what products you use!