TKB's Athena etc and the difference a good camera makes

Do not be fooled - these pics  have been taken by a dude who knows his stuff and with a camera that probably cost half my year's wages. I do not look this good irl. This is all smoke and mirrors, just like the pics of celebrities on the magazine covers. Since it was overcast, the light was not warm enough to make my skin look reddish or yellow. Perfect pale, just as I like it :)

biggify to see the foundi in action

Stuff used:
e.l.f. mineral eyeshadow  primer
Monistat gel all over the face
Lumene's Arctic Definition Mineral Eyebrow Pencil with Protecting Arctic Amethyst (makes me chuckle every time I read this) No 2 Gray Brown. Lovely color btw - looks just like my eyebrows, just better.
Lumene's Natural Code Eye Dramatizer Volume-Defining Mascara (product names are getting ridiculous, don't you think?).

still unsymmetrical :S

On the eyes: TKB's Athena all over lid, Simply Naturals' Sandlewood in the crease and a generous helping of Smashbox's highlighter color from their Viewfinder trio on the browbone and used to blend out Sandlewood.

No cheek colors, no contouring - just EDM's Olive Fair in semi-matte, applied thicker on some spots. Lips are done with e.l.f.'s mineral lipstick in Cool Coral, I do not like that one much.
I LOVE the way my face is the same tone as my neck!

Bangs need cutting... and I think I should either grow my hair longer so I could put it up or cut it shorter - current length does not suit me as well as I thought. Accentuates the already rather impressive jawline. Hair is still moist on some of the pics, looks darker then really is.

Must tehti profikaameraga pilte - tulemus erineb tavapärasest ikka märkimisväärselt. See viimane pilt siin on tehtud ülevalgustamise-tehnikaga, näitab nahka eriliselt veatu ning näojooni pehmematena, kui need tegelikult on. Mineraalpuuder oma valgusthajutavate osistega on siin tõesti abiks - puudrikiht mu näos ei ole kuigi paks ja lisaks on see ka veel semi-matte, st et mitte kõige katvam retsept.

EOTD Brown with Bronze Fine

Champagne on the browbone

Bronze Fine blended in the crease

Moonstone all over lid

Chameleon Fine dry over black eye pencil

Manhattan's eyeshadow base

Dermoshop's mineral foundation

Lumene Natural Code mascara

Skin looks terrible still, especially on the jawline. 

Foundation is a bit reddish and does not match my neck. 

Better for the summer I guess.

EOTD Oriental Beige with Deep Russet, beware of the Big Giant Head!

Using my newly pressed piggies. It's a bit weird for me to use pressed eyeshadows - the consistensy is different from powdered ones and skin swatches look really weakly pigmented in comparison, very sheer. On the other side - less fall out and it still looks the same on the lid. My synthetic eyeshadow brushes suck with the pressed ones. Here the slight scratchiness of the natural hair brush is actually rather welcome. ELF's Studio eyeshadow brushes have nothing to do here (exception is the small angled brush - that one works beautifully). With pressed eye shadows ELF's regular line works better - I just wish it would not shed as much...

 Colors used are: Champagne on the brow bone, Oriental Beige all over lid, Deep Russet in the crease, Hilite Copper in inner corners and on the lower waterline, Moonstone used as lower liner. 

Manhattans black eye pencil on upper lashline, Lumene Natural Code mascara in black. 

(My) left eye is done with ELF's eyeshadow primer stick and right eye is primed with ELF's mineral eyeshadow primer. I still haven't made a review of those, always forget.

Foundation is Gosh's fairest (a tester of which I bummed from a store last week) and I'm happy to say, it's really truly very light! Coverage is not the best, I applied 2-3 coats to get the coverage it has on the photos, it's very runny, much runnier then Lumene's liquid foundation I tried a week ago. I cant remember which Gosh foundation it was exactly, they carry 2-3 different formulas - I only remember it was a dark sort of tube. Blush and contour color is Peach, liquid foundation is set with EDM's Olive Fair in o-glo and as a highlighter I used silica microspheres (cheekbones, forehead, nose bridge)

Lash curler really does work :) but I forgot the eyebrows, again. I really hate my look when I have darker eyebrows - I think it makes me look mean. Unfortunately a light grayish brow color is something  I have yet to mix for myself. :)

Nüüd kinnitatud ka teise heleda jumestuskreemi olemasolu Eesti Vabariigis, aeg võtta välja šampanjapudel! Mineraalpuuder sobib suurepäraselt meiki kinnitama, Olive Fair jättis just selle vajaliku kerge kuma. Ja lisas katvust... Goshi ja Lumene jumestuskreemid ei saa katvusega eriti kiidelda.

Lumene Natural Code liquid foundation in Vanilla

Finally tried out my sample of Lumene Natural Code liquid foundation in Vanilla a genereous saleslady provided me with. Pale people, rejoice! Not too yellow, not too orange - perfect light neutral beige. It's on the sheer side and does not appear mask-like - it's totally opposite, very natural looking. Used E.L.F's foundation brush for application, worked like a charm. Here's a nice before-after picture of the foundation:

The foundation was applied with no primer, just some jojoba oil as moisturizer and it started to wear off by afternoon. 

On the eyes I used Champagne on the brow-bone, Peach on the lid and Moon Stone on the crease today. Subtle, again.

And here's a pic of all the stuff used. Mulberry was used on the cheeks.

Lõpuks ometi on müügile tulnud piisavalt hele jumestustoode! Lumene Natural Code Vanilla ei ole oranž ega kollane vaid mõnusalt neutraalne helebeež. Võimalik, et see sobib nii suurepäraselt vaid seetõttu, et see suhteliselt vähekattev on, sulandub hästi loomulikku nahatooni. Koostis on suhteliselt vedel ja ei püsi eriti palju kauem peal kui mu mineraalpuudrid. Nahatooni ühtlustajana hea asi aga kindlasti vajab peitekreemi ning meigialuskreemi alla.
Mis puutub selle stuffi looduslikkusesse siis Lumene kodulehel koostisosadest juttu pole. On vaid väike nupuke selle kohta, kuidas toode looduslikku teeleheekstrakti sisaldab ja seetõttu eriti kasulik on.
Järgmisena püüan kätte saada Goshi heledaima, mida on ka väidetud "tõesti väga heleda" olevat.
PS! If one looks real hard, it's possible to see my first ever pressed pigment on the photo - Peach.

PPS! For Pale too: not so perfect, actually...

Shopping!

I have very important guests coming over so I made a tiny splurge and invested in The Body Shop's Pomegranate and Raspberry home and linen spray. Might be slightly too sweet but I like it :). TBS has a 20% off at the moment. But even still - it's so much cheaper elsewhere, i.e. UK. Goes for £6 in UK but full price in Estonia is almost £10.

Also bought Dr.Hauschka's tester of their light version of the Rose Day Cream. My skin is acting up lately and probably needs little pampering. The small 5 gr tube will last me a month (55 kr) and is a good size for traveling.

The little jar on the left is a liquid foundation from Lumene's Natural Code series that was said to be very light: Vanilla. Since I cant really spot the place on my arm where I swatched it, I guess it's true :). The saleslady got really carried away and I think there's 4-7 uses in the little jar. I only asked for one... Thank you :)

I think I also saw some note there stating that this (seasonal product) is so cheap (109 kr if I remember correctly) only because it's being discontinued :S.

And here's an EOTD too, using TKB's Radiant Gold in inner corners, Grape Parfait in outer corners, Hilite Gold in the middle of the lid, also used for blending the purple outwards from the crease and to cover the eye liner pencil. Foundation was Archetype Cosmetics' Yellow Beige in level 1 (it worked miracles today, trust me on this...). EDM's Pearl Sunlight is under the eyes and on the browbones, very light mascara application because it's rainy today - trying to minimize potential pandaness :D.

 Today I used Dr. Scheller's moisturizer instead of the usual jojoba oil and I did not let it set enough... foundation looks a bit heavy.

The Body Shopil on 20% ale 9.-11. septembrini, meigitoodetele on ale veel isegi 30%, kasutasin juhust ja hankisin endale magusalõhnalise multifuntktsionaalse kodulõhna. Kanepi-kätekreemi austajad peaksid samuti kärmelt sammud poe poole seadma ;).

Nahk on viimasest kuust saati kaunis jube, vaatasin sellele vahelduseks ka midagi kallist ja kompleksset: Hauschka kerge roosikreemi (Hauschka testreid müüakse nii 45-55 kr tk, nt Stockmannis ja Kaubamajas), loodetavasti läheb lööve varsti alla :S.

Kõige vasakpoolsem totsik pildil on täidetud Lumene Natural Code heledaima jumestuskreemiga Vanilla, mis, üllatus-üllatus - ongi hele! Vähemalt oma käel ma küll seda kohta ei erista, kuhu kreemi kandsin :). Müüja läks mulle testrit andes veidi hoogu ja pani päris palju toodet. Ainuke tõrvatilk meepotis tundub olevat asjaolu, et Natural Code sari võib peatselt tootmisest maha minna - jumestuskreem oli 109 kr peale alla hinnatud, halb märk... 

EOTD Black Amethyst in Twilight

Colors used are: TKB Trading's Twilight dry all over lid and Black Amethyst wet as liner. Foundi is the Minerals.Planet (Estonian webstore) foundation in Fair (we suspect she sells Coastal Scents foundi) which is also used on the brow bone. Garnet mixed with The Conservatorie's foundi in Caramel Light (50:50 mix) as blush. Forgot the eyeshadow primer, the pigment sticks quite well on it's own too.

Mineral makeup is not very covering. At least this particular blend is not - needs the concealer underneath. Here's a before and after for you to decide yourself. I think the result is better then the bare skin. This MMU has trouble covering big blemishes but (like all MMU) works wonders evening out the skin-tone.

Minerals.Planet'i poolt müüdav foundi (JJ-lt laenatud) pole kõige katvam kuid tal on mõnus siidine struktuur. Kehvema nahaga rahvas peaks ostma ka peitepuudri, mida probleemkohtadele paksemalt peale kanda enne meigipõhja tegemist. Ma kasutasin pärastpoole ka mingit veil'i, pilti ei teinud. Unustan alati viimistluspuudreid kasutada sest ei saa hästi aru nende otstarbest.

Sans makeup

Mineral makeup makes me look so good on the photos that i thought I should do some more before and afters. The befores look quite scary, my skin when kept natural, is very multicolored. And since I have been religiously wearing sunglasses this summer, i have become the reverse panda - skin around the eyes is lighter then the rest of the face.

Pics are taken under 2 different windows.

My skin is ok at the moment, none of the nasty big and purple colored hormonal blemishes yet.

I wonder if there are people, whose skin looks absolutely flawless and smooth all over without any makeup, all the time? I'd rather say - no.

Ms E's swatches of her EDM haul

Now I have to do handle some backlog: Ms E sent me her swatches she made of her EDM collection and gave me her kind permission to upload them here. I kinda assume that the swatches are made in the same sequence that they are listed on the paper.

EOTD Brown: Super Brilliant Moca

Dr Hauschka's rose oil as moisturizer (the brush is terribly oily now)
EDM's Fair Neutral in intensive as foundi
EDM's Bisque color corrector and Champagne as blush

Manhattan's eye shadow primer
Colors used:

Conservatorie's Super Brilliant Mocha mica all over lid
EDM's Sparkle Beige as highlighter in the inner corner
TKB's Ivory Lace on the browbone, used also to blend the darker color
Simply Naturals' Sandlewood as upper and lower liner

Tweaking the Conservatorie's foundi

Added a touch of Grape, extremely small amount of Blueberry and silica microspheres, a half teaspoon of boron glow and three full teaspoons of TiO2 to the Conservatorie's mix (6-7 teaspoons of it - do not have an exact measuring device) - result - DAMN! too light - I've not been able to say this for years. Beautiful glowing pinkish-grayish powder in the jar and white on the face - unfortunately my neck seems too yellow now...
Coverage and adhesion are both excellent, the texture is creamy. Had to use mom's coffee grinder to mix it up though - the tiny unmixed granules of Grape streaked...

In daylight - it's a match on my neck... how the hell is this possible? And the lady downstairs commented on my beautiful flawless skin :D. Oh what a happy day...

Mineraalmeik ja teised meigiblogid/Cool Beauty Blogs

Rocketqueen was the one who turned my attention towards MMU, more precisely MAD Minerals, Archetype Cosmetics and Fyrinnae. She has white skin just like me. Writes in Swedish and English.

Mõnus blogi, prantsusekeelne, palju swatche: Nemux. A very elegant lady and her blog in French, lots of swatches. Adore her EOTDs.

Sellel on uhke meigikollektsioon MyBeautyImprint ja uskumatult ilusad EOTD-d.

Sirvinya's blog and Youtube tut's brought me to MMU. She's also one of the moderators on MakeUpTalk.

Memoires of a Shopping Addict has great ideas for eye makeup.

Cleodelinda has wonderful swatches too.

Shades of You is a very diligent blogger and has great photos, lots of swatches and countless reviews. a MAC girl...

I just wish I'd come across Caucasian girls' beauty blogs more often... Need some good ideas as to what goes best with fair complexion and blue eyes.

Meigihulle leidub igas vanuses :) Marinamake

Siin tuleb ingoreerida küünelakiteemalisi postitusi ja silmameigist snitti võtta: Purity

Shimmerkisser writes in English, has some lovely swatches of TKB stuff.

Avastasin ka selle blogi Killer Colors : väga lahe ja tõeliselt cool kergelt gooti ilublogi :). Totally cool blog, in swedish, summaries in English. Uses a lot of MAD Minerals products.

How to find your foundation online? & How to choose foundation color?

The best place - beauty forums (Everyday Minerals forum, Makeuptalk Mineral Makeup forum). Just post a picture (preferably taken in daylight, with slight overcast and not in direct sunlight) of yourself and ask for advice. People are kind.

Because pictures are not always trustworthy and every computer screen is different from the other - to be quite sure just go to your nearest MAC counter and ask the consultant to match your skin tone. The MAC skin color codes are often useful when looking for the right foundation because it's such a big and well known international makeup company with substantially large assortment of colors. Some ppl have even gathered comparative information in excel datasheets and are kind enough share them with all (this MAC skin tone is this and that in EDM, Meow etc).

The smart thing to do is to order samples in colors that are suggested to you or if you trust the descriptions, you think that will match your skin tone.

Lighting is very important when choosing one's foundation. The sensible approach would be testing the foundation in daylight first. The stuff the salesgirl puts on you in store - boy have I been disappointed when I got home! Artificial lighting tunes down the orange color and as you arrive home with your new foundi - you discover you look like an orange.
One should always test the foundation in daylight before buying it. But even this may be difficult. This is a picture taken this afternoon: one near a window facing south and the other facing north. The one taken near the northern window is considerably more bluish...

Differences in lighting play hell with the swatches I make... pictures taken during summer and pictures taken now - there's a world of difference.

It's important to choose the foundation to match your neck, not the face; test it on your neck or decolleté, not on your cheek or forehead. Even the jawline is not very trustworthy imho, because of the shadow. You have to use a smaller mirror in order to see properly - and mirrors reflect light.

Here's an "in your face!" to all of those obnoxious "know-it-all" ppl in Estonian forums, that think no one can possibly be whiter then MAC's fairest:


MAC Studio Fix Fluid in NC15 and NW15 (always thought that NW means neutral warm or smth but it's actually the "cool" color group - how can it possibly be considered a cool tone - it's friggin' orange!)

So shut up about the MAC's fairest!
It's either yellow or orange and therefore totally unsuitable for us pale gurls.

The salesladies at The Body Shop were also very nice and provided me with samples of their lightest foundations: Moisture Foundation SPF15 in 02 and 03. Tried them on my neck and the result fully matched my expectations - too orange. The coverage is somewhat lesser then the one of MAC but this was to be expected - it's basically a moisturizer. I gave the swatches 10 minutes before taking these pictures:

The upper picture gives a good idea how horrible I look without foundation. Lots of hormonal blemishes and impurities.

And on the decolleté:

The funny thing is I went like aargh - my perfect match! when I saw the swatch of No 03 on my skin - it was like sooo perfect in the store. And as I got home and swatched in the daylight - all the magic was suddenly gone. I think the No 3 would be quite passable during the summer though.

Kui kurdad kusagil ilufoorumis, et emamaal ei müüda piisavalt heledaid toone, hüppab alati põõsast välja keegi, kes teatab, et loomulikult on: mine vaata vaid MACi letti. AGA mida pole seda pole. NW15 on oranž ja NC15 on kollane.

Kui aega leian, siis kontrollin ka väidet, et Max Factor Lasting Peformance 100 olevat ülivalgele nahale sobiv. Kui õieti mäletan siis see oli suhteliselt kollane...

Conservatorie Honey Light, FOTD

To prove to myself that Conservatorie's Honey Light really is as orange as I claim it to be, I made a series of photos of me wearing it. The photos unfortunately do not confirm it as well as the mirror does. (Honey Light is the only one I chose in Conservatorie's Deluxe recipe - cant actually tell the difference from the Premium+ recipe).

I did not bother with primer or with applying lots of layers - it would have just gotten more intensely orange.

(just look under the eyes - orange is noticeable there but that's nothing when compared to the neck)

Do I need to add, that I absolutely hate the orange look on me? :P
Life a female version of a "Guido"...

I was truly amazed when I received these testers - on the homepage Honey looks sooo "olive" to me and IRL is such a bright orange, the feeling of disappointment is comparable to the one I had when I swatched SN Shock for the first time and found out it's bright orange (in my imagination Shock should have been pinkish golden smth and not the color of the setting sun).

I am getting a small inkling that Conservatorie's foundies are not as covering as Archetype's... bummer... they are so much more affordable. They're also full matte, lacking the beautiful glow Archetype has. That in itself should not be a very big problem - I can simply mix some shine into them, there is some talk regarding boron and silica microspheres on the forums...

It's so difficult for gals with pale skin to find the right foundation tones. Hopefully I can tweak he Caramel light into suitably white powder by adding TiO2.