St. Paddy's Day Makeup!

I'm so sorry about the rushed blog post and bad pictures. I went on a mini two-night vacation this weekend and didn't quite get to perfecting this!

Light green base with a touch of peach on the upper half of lid.

Bright green corners

Darkest green on the very outer corners.

Line with brown eyeshadow underneath

Blend top with bottom

Add green liquid eyeliner

My green wasn't quite the right shade,
so I covered it with eyeshadow that was closer to a St. Paddy's color.

This is what your dark corners should look like.

Highlight under your eyebrows with cream eyeshadow

Line with black

I would probably line a little underneath too, now that I'm looking at it.

Mascara and eyebrows filled in

Unfortunately I forgot to take an after picture! But you get the idea :) Here's a couple pics from last year.

Finish off with some green, white and gold nail polish and no one will be pinching you tomorrow!

Why I Switched to Bare Minerals Makeup, and Why it was the Best Decision Ever

I have literally spent fifteen years searching for foundation that didn't make my acne worse.  *This is NOT a promoted post!* I just love it enough that I want to tell everyone on earth about its awesomeness. No one should have to struggle for YEARS with acne like this:

This is one week after I started the Bare Minerals foundation, which tells you how bad it was before that. This is actually AFTER some progress had been made. After two weeks, that was completely cleared up and GONE. 

This picture was taken the very same day as the above pic, with the Bare Minerals on. Not only does it improve my skin every single day, but it COMPLETELY covers any trace of acne still existing. (It's also the closest color match I have ever found for my extremely fair skin.) 

When I say it has improved my skin, I mean my face has been completely REBORN. If you have any doubts about mineral makeup (and I don't mean the drug store stuff), TRY IT (link). Invest $30 and I swear you won't regret it.

(I have heard there are many other brands of mineral makeup, some that are even better, but I haven't tried them so I don't feel like I can promote them yet.)

WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE SKIN CARE/MAKEUP PRODUCT? 

Dealing with Acne

There are MANY types of acne out there, but for now I just want to talk about the way I deal with MINE, because, well that's all I know. Maybe it will help you. I have oily/combination skin, which means I am either overrun by oil, or I have oily skin in some places and dry skin in others. Let's not talk about how frustrating that is, especially now that I'm turning thirty this year and STILL have to deal with it. We'll just jump into what works to keep it manageable. 

8 Steps to Keep Acne Under Control:

1.   Wash your face. I can't tell you what cleanser will be best, that's just far too personal. That's like me picking your husband for you. But I've read that you should rotate through a couple of different cleansers every few weeks, as your body can build up resistance if you use just one all the time. Some people recommend washing your face in the morning with an exfoliant and washing with a cream or gel cleanser at night. Whatever works for you, just be sure you do it EVERY DAY. If you don't have time to wash your face at night, at least use an astringent or a cleansing pad really quickly before bed.

2.   Change your pillow case, like, all the time. It's not just me, this article from Huffington Post says so (and many others). It's collecting all the bacteria from your face, your hair, whatever else, and you're just rubbing your face on it all night long every night. Wash that thing every couple of days. Ew

3.   Benzoyl Peroxide.

No, it does NOT need to be name brand! Look at the ingredient list. They are all identical. The only difference you will see is in the percentage, and my rule of thumb is buy the strongest one I can find. (10% is the highest I've seen in drug stores.) 

I have occasionally even found this at the dollar store. If you happen to see it there, pick up as many as you can manage, because this will save you $5-8 per tube! You would find it with the medicines and topical treatments. 

Tip: Keep a tube of this in each of your bathrooms, in your makeup bag, and next to your bed at night. If it's all over the house you will not forget to use it. Whenever you notice a zit coming on (assuming you haven't put your makeup on yet), put some on. (If you have sensitive skin, don't do this very often.) 

If you have found that Benzoyl Peroxide isn't doing the trick, it might be that Salicylic Acid is better for your skin. Try them both at separate times (like for a week at a time) so you know which one works best for you. I find that Benzoyl Peroxide works better for me, but when my acne is really bad, I will combine the two by using Oxy pads (yeah, like a teenager). The two different creams have different purposes, which you can read about here, and that's why you can use them together if you need to. Just be aware, if you have trouble with dry skin, you will not want to use both. It will dry out your face in no time (which is what I need, but you may not).

4.   Drink tons of water. I'm not even kidding, every time you are sitting still, there should be a glass of water in front of you. Bottled water, warm water, cold water, lemon water... whatEVER it takes for you to drink it, drink it. Drink as much as you can. If you're not needing to pee every fifteen minutes, you aren't drinking enough for your skin to stay healthy. I am terrible at this, but I know it's true, so I will try harder to practice what I preach. There are even apps you can get that will send a notification to your phone each time you should be drinking a glass of water throughout the day.

5.   I know you don't want to hear this. Neither do I. But I have to say it. It's your diet. When I eat food that's bad for me, especially greasy or sugary food, it shows up on my face no more than two days later. It is literally written all over my face that I have been cheating on my "diet" (by diet I mean eating healthy, not cutting calories).  Try it. Go without grease and sugar for a couple of weeks, and watch your skin clear up. Then eat a pizza and a milkshake. I dare you. 

Contouring for your face shape - why you shouldn't be scared to color block your face

 

Ok, I know. They look like aliens. Is it really this dramatic? Do you REALLY do it this dark and this light, and in straight lines like that? Well, yeah. Pretty much. I took some pictures while I did my makeup this morning to show you mine. 

It's not as scary as it looks, I promise! The key is to do the contouring UNDER the foundation.

It's not quite so dramatic as those pictures up there
because I use powder products, not cream.

The colors are pretty drastic, though...

...until I go over my whole face with foundation...which evens it all out and blends it in.

Now, instead of looking like an alien...
I just look like I have cheekbones!

This, however, makes my eyes look totally washed out.

Add some eye makeup,
eyebrows, lipstick...

...and I look human again!

Still think it's too hard? Try it on a day you have no where to go. Experimentation is the only way we learn new things. 

You can do it! :) And I'm always here if you have questions.

Daily Makeup Routine on a Single Mom Budget

Just so we're clear, I feel absolutely ridiculous taking pictures of myself and acting like I'm some sort of expert. I learned all these tricks from articles in magazines, things I've found online, Pinterest pins, and YouTube videos over the years. I have no formal training (although I will someday) in makeup artistry, and I have done a LOT of trial and error up to this point. Over time my makeup habits change, so a few months from now I will probably look back at this and laugh at it.

The only reason I made this video is because I have had so many people ask me to show them how I do my makeup. I will never get a chance to actually sit down with these people and show them, so I am settling for this video. I wasn't brave enough this time to make actual video of myself, so it's just a bunch of pictures with captions to give you the general idea. Maybe some day I will get the guts to do the whole thing on video. I'm brand new at this YouTube stuff!

Enough explaining! For whatever it's worth, here it is. Hope you pick up a few things you didn't know before! And, as always, please leave a comment so I know who's actually looking at this nonsense, and share if you feel so inclined. :)




Loves!
Aubrey Anne

Smokey pallet by NYX - an $8 alternative to the $53 Naked pallet

I want to show you the way I do a smokey eye, and a few extra tips along the way about eyebrows and mascara. Try to bear with me, as this post required a lot of pictures. 

Oh, and I'm not sponsored, even though it sounds like it. I just really love eyeslipsface products, so I use a lot of them. :)

These are the four makeup brushes I use to do my eye makeup every day. 

The far left is a Sonia Kashuk brush I've had forever, which is good for applying mass amounts of color. The second to the left is e.l.f. essential defining eye brush, my all-time favorite brush. The third is the e.l.f. Studio line small angled brush, and the fourth is the e.l.f. Studio line contour brush. 

No, I'm not exaggerating. I use four makeup brushes just for my eyelids. There is no other way to achieve these precise looks, so if you've been attempting it with just one brush (or God forbid, that little spongey applicator that came with the pallet), you've found your first problem.

I'm going to show you Smokey by NYX and Sex Bomb by NYX. I got them for about $8 each and you can find them pretty much anywhere. 

I use these two pallets together, because I like two or three of the colors from each. You don't need both, you can do this look with either one of these pallets, but I use both, so that's what I show here.

STEP 1: Start with your absolute lightest color (for this I used the one that's almost white). Your lightest color always goes first, and it's always under your eyebrow (to create a highlight) and around the inner corners of your eyes. Pull the light color down under your eye, by your bottom lashes, to make them stand out a little too.

STEP 2: Next is your second-lightest color. Cover the lid with this color. 

STEP 3: The next darkest color makes a vague triangle around the outer edge and crease. (I prefer purple to blue, but if I had blue eyes, I'd probably choose blue.) If you have small eyelids, skip this step and move straight to step 4. 

STEP 4: This is the part where you start to feel like the Goth from high school. Trust me (and yourself). You have to apply too much to start with, but I promise it will be OK. We'll be blending soon. 

I use the Sex Bomb pallet for this, as I prefer the matte black color to the sparkly black in the Smokey pallet, but it's really whatever you like best. (Any pallet can follow this process, just go from lightest to darkest!)

Your darkest color goes in the crease and makes a triangle at the outer corner. Absolutely none of this color goes in the inner corner! Keep this color away from the light inner corner you already created, or you will look sunken in and dead. Anywhere you put the white, back in Step 1, this color does not go there.

STEP 5: Blend like crazy. You will lose a lot of the color during this process, which is why we put on too much to start with. You are going for smokey, not Cat Woman. 

(OK, maybe a little bit of Cat Woman.) 

After you blend, add a little of the cream color wherever your dark color ended up and you didn't want it. (Tip: by now my tissue is filthy... this process is messy. I usually don't do my foundation until after my eye makeup, but I didn't want to scare you guys!)

STEP 6: Eyeliner - I use e.l.f. eye brightening eyeliner ($1) for the bottom lid and e.l.f. liquid eyeliner ($1) for the top. 

STEP 7: Eyebrows and mascara

The picture below was taken to show you why I fill in my eyebrows. I have a lot of "how do you do your eyebrows?" comments, and I have to say, I don't do anything special. I pluck them every single day before I do my makeup, and I fill them in with e.l.f. eyebrow kit in Dark. My eyebrows are naturally black, but as I get older they are less full, and I find it makes a big difference to fill them in. (Try to ignore the eyebrow hair on the left which is currently on strike.)

As you know, my favorite mascara changes by the minute. (You already know I LOVE the 3D fiber lashes, but I don't use them every day.) For every day mascara I use Maybelline The Colossal Volum' Express: Cat Eyes.

I have two tubes of this because when I buy a new one, I hold onto the old one as long as I can stand it (and extend its life with this trick). The new one gives me the dramatic affect I'm ultimately going for, but the older one gives me the volume to build on. If the first coat of mascara is too new, it's too wet, and will just clump all ugly-like. First coat: older tube of mascara, second coat: new tube of mascara. Don't forget to curl your eyelashes before the mascara! If you do it after it makes the clumping much worse.

(If you find this look doesn't work well on you, try the alternate smokey eye, 

which you can find here.)

That's all I have for you. Thanks for reading!

Leave a comment, pretty please! 

And if you can share this post, that would be pretty sweet of you as well. :)