Foundation Review: L'Oreal Magic Nude

It's rare that I find a product that I am just DYING to blog about but this one fit that description to a T.

These days I've streamlined my makeup routine quite a bit and generally sport the "no makeup" makeup look.  Foundation that is light enough to look like my natural skin but gives me just enough coverage to blur the sun damage and even out the ruddiness in my cheeks and redness around my nose.  Add some eyebrows, a sweep of lipstick, blush and masacara, then I'm done.  Ready in 5 minutes or so.
I have a few requirements for a light foundation.  It can't set in my fine lines or enhance my dry patches, the color needs to reasonably match, it can't break me out, and it needs to wear down nicely.

I had run across some reviews of the relatively new L'Oreal Magic Nude Liquid Powder foundation ($12) and was eager to test it out.  It has been described as a dupe for the Armani Maestro Fusion foundation ($64), and since both are owned by the same parent company, entirely possible.

Since it was brand new I didn't have a good feel for what color might match me (MAC NC25-30ish) so I picked up shade 318 Natural Buff and 320 Natural Beige.  318 worked well for me during the winter and as I get a little color this summer I'll use the 320.
Here's what the blurb on the website says about it:
"Get the ultimate un-makeup look with Magic Nude Liquid Powder Bare Skin Perfecting Makeup with SPF 18. Revolutionary liquid transforms on contact, leaving a soft powder like finish. This foundation is so amazingly lightweight it's like wearing no makeup at all! Just shake and apply – it’s magic!" So how does it live up to that bit of fluff?  Ladies, (and gents out there)  it fucking does.  It has a super lightweight feel to it and blends into your skin like nobody's business.  It sort of has a bit of that silicone primer slip to it, and does seem to get a powdery feel without a powdery LOOK once you've blended it into your skin.  Magic folks.  MAGIC.

You are not going to get a full coverage look to this, and even medium coverage is pushing it.  However if you are looking for just a light-medium evening out of your skin tone, this is your lucky day.  If you have blemishes or really dark circles, concealer will be needed to cover those.

You can see the splotchy cheeks and redness around my nose.  I can't emphasize wearing sun screen enough ladies, the years in the sun will turn you into leathery shoes if you aren't careful.

Some tips on application, shake it well.  Then shake it AGAIN.  The formula can be streaky if you don't shake it up really well.  I usually don't bother with a primer, but DO moisturize first, and wait a few minutes for that to sink into your skin before applying.  This doesn't cling to your dry areas too much but if you are flaking all over the place, any foundation will look awful.   Apply it with your fingers.  I know I know, some of you out there hate using your fingers to apply foundation.  Wash your hands well first, and USE YOUR FINGERS. 

The texture of the foundation is REALLY runny.  I nearly spilled it all over the place the first time I used it, so be careful.  Why this doesn't come in a pump I have no idea.  Pour just a dime-quarter sized amount into your palm and that should be plenty to cover your whole face and blend down your neck a bit.

Dot it on your cheeks, forehead, nose and chin.   Blend it into your skin in circular motions, and areas you need a teeny bit more coverage you can pat a bit on, but don't go overboard.  It's supposed to be light coverage remember.  

It isn't a long wearing foundation but it fades evenly by the end of the day so you don't have weird patchy areas that sometimes happens with the long wear kinds.  I have combination to oily skin and by the 8 hr mark I have a bit of a glow to my T zone but nothing that screams to be powdered or blotted away.  

This is a really nice every day kind of foundation to have.  I love that it applies smoothly and looks great without any work required.  Pretty in natural light dontcha think?

Packaging: C+

Color Match: A+

Longevity: B

Finish: A+

OVERALL GRADE:  B+

DISCLAIMER:  I bought this with my own money and am not affiliated with L'Oreal at all.  All opinions are solely my own.

Battle of the Top Coats: Seche Vite vs Out the Door

So I've been a die hard fan of Seche Vite (~$8-10 at your drugstore) for years.  It is the top coat I return to time and again after straying and trying to find a cheaper yet equally awesome alternative.  There are a few unique characteristics of Seche Vite that I haven't found in other brands. 

You apply it while your polish is still WET and it bonds to the color and smooths out any ridges and leaves a wet shine like no other.  It lives up to its name and dries fast within just a few minutes, and if you leave it to cure for at least ten you won't have any issues with smudges. 

One of the problems with Seche Vite is that the formula thickens up really quickly in the bottle.  I never get more than half way thru a bottle before it's so thick that it gets tossed or needs Seche Restore to thin it out.  So that's another $8 to keep it from getting goopy.  For someone who buys nail color on impulse and usually sticks to the cheapo $1.99 Sinful Colors polishes, I hate shelling out that much for a top coat.  However since I do use cheap ass polishes, they start chipping before even a day is out.  Thus the catch 22.  Use a good top coat to squeeze out a couple extra days from a manicure.

This time a top coat that I'd read from a beauty blog that might compare to Seche Vite was Out The Door.  I'd never heard of it before and was immediately intrigued.  I found it at my local Walgreen's for only $4-5 and had to try it out.  Just to test with some of the most chip prone polishes I own, the color is Oceanside from Sinful Colors.

Upon first application I could see that the Seche Vite side leaves you with a thicker glossier top layer.  All the ridges that happen when a polish doesn't auto level well are nicely disguised and  the color just looks better.  The drying time was very similar though and I didn't have any issues with smudging in the hours after application.  

After 5 days of wear, both showed chipping but there was a definite improved wear on the Seche Vite side.

I would normally change my mail color after 3 days and Out the Door might work in a pinch but Seche Vite still wins the Battle of the Top Coats over all.

Holy Grail Products for the Eyes

I figured after doing a lot of reviews, it would be a great idea to do a post about all the products that I truly love and cannot live without.  These are the things I reach for everyday and can depend on to perform every time.  This edition focuses on eye products and the next will be face and lip products.  I wholeheartedly recommend these items to anyone.

SHU UEMERA LASH CURLER ($19.90 on Amazon) - if you have ever complained about eyelash curlers that pinch your skin, pull your lashes out, make your lashes stick to the curling pads, or, God forbid, chop your lashes off, look no further.  There is no comparison to any other lash curler and I've tried an ton.  Even those goofy heated ones, this is hands down the best.  It gives your lashes that nice wide eyed natural looking curl without leaving them looking crimped and sticking straight up.  You can use it on lashes that have mascara on them without the lashes sticking to the pads.  The pads last just about forever, I've had mine for years and there isn't event the hint of a dent in them.  I love this curler so much I have three.

MAYBELLINE THE ROCKET MASCARA Waterproof in Very Black (~$6-7 at the drugstore) - I have very fine straight short lashes that will not hold a curl unless the formula is waterproof.  This mascara holds my curl like a champ and it has out performed many high end mascara's I've tried.  I'm looking at you Benefit They're Real, Guerlain and Dior.  It does not make the super long but once I curl my lashes and put a coat or three of this on, my lashes are curled until I'm ready to take my makeup off.  It doesn't flake or smudge but will require a waterproof eye makeup remover to get off.  For days when I'm feeling like a super glam look without glueing false lashes on, I will curl my lashes, put a light coat of this on to lock my curl, wait for it to dry and then layer a lengthening mascara on top such as the Benefit one.

LIOELE AUTO EYEBROW PENCIL ($13.98 on prettyandcute.com) -  I cannot leave my house without coloring my brows in because they are so sparse.  I discovered this brand after hearing Jenn on From Head to Toe rave about how much she loved it.  One pencil lasted me about 9 months using it every single day and I am down to the very nub and will need to order another soon.  The tip is not round, it's kind of like a tilted rectangle, or parallelogram for you nit picky folks, and the formula is not too creamy or too waxy.  I use the color grey which matches my skin tone and hair color perfectly.  Anything too much darker would look too harsh.  It is a twist up and does not require sharpening, and the other end has a convenient spoolie to brush out your brows and blend in the color.  You can purchase it on http://www.prettyandcute.com - just use the discount code KLOVE10 for 10% off.

MEET MATT(E) NUDE FROM THE BALM ($42) - I've only recently gotten into using matte eyeshadows and I am in LOVE with this palette.  You can easily get natural daytime to ultra smokey night time looks and the shadows are huge.  The peachy color is a perfect blending color to smooth out harsh lines and I just think you get such a sophisticated eye look with matte colors.  They are very well pigmented and go on smoothly without any chalkiness.  I suggest using a primer or a cream shadow as a base for the color to cling to and if you do you won't have any issues with creasing or fading.  Who doesn't love adorable packaging?

GUERLAIN TERRACOTTA TOUCH Glow Enhancing Perfector -($43 on Sephora) - this is a splurge item for sure and I blame my cousin Vanessa for getting me hooked on this crack.  You use it under your eyes and on your cheek bones and under your brows to get a beautiful highlight.  It does a good job of concealing under eye circles IF they aren't TOO dark.  You may need something with more coverage under this if you do, then layer this on top.  I have not found anything that takes away my "tired Mama face" like this.  It brightens me up, gives me a beautiful glow where I want to highlight, and I even use a touch of the down the bridge of my nose and on my Cupid's bow.  Make sure you use a hydrating eye cream and wait at least 5 minutes to let that soak in before applying this.  I usually dot it under my eye with my ring finger or use a dense Sigma P80 flat top brush to stipple it in if I'm feeling particularly fancy.  Fingers blend just fine.  I usually put this on AFTER my foundation because the foundation does a decent job of concealing the darkest parts and this finishes it off.  I recommend setting it (and your Tzone in general) with a finishing powder.

PHYSICIANS' FORMULA 2in1 LASH BOOSTING EYELINER - ($10-12 at the drugstore) - ok if you love a felt tip liquid liner, you need this in your life.  The formula applies butter smooth, lasts all day long without smudging or flaking.  The felt tip is long enough and flexible enough for precise cat's eye winged liner and you can often take advantage of drugstore sales to get a great deal.  Once I've applied this I always like to set it with a similarly colored powder shadow just to keep it from budging.

Another month of awesome from Ipsy May 2013

Once again the Ipsy monthly beauty subscription has beaten its competitors to a pulp.  The comparison was so staggering that I've finally pulled the plug and said sayonara to Birchbox, who was my first beauty sub love.  For a paltry $10 a month this is what I received from them.

Here is the roundup and price point for each of the items:

Full sized Zoya nail polish in Blu (a robin's egg blue) - $8 retail

Full sized Pacifica Roll On perfume in Tahitian Gardinia - $12 retail

Mini Pacifica Coconut Crushed Pearl Bronzing Butter - $7 retail

Full sized Mirabella lipstick in Daydream - $22 retail

Sample of Yaby concealer in Honey - $4.85 retail

AND as a bonus for being a good customer - they sent me a full sized Urban Decay Moondust Eyeshadow in Glitter Rock! - $20 retail

So my $10 this month got me $71.85 worth of products!

The Pacifica brand is pretty easy to find in Target and Whole Foods - I'm a fan of their Blood Orange scent, and while the Gardenia is more floral than I usually reach for, I will still probably use it on occasions when I want to feel particularly girly.

I'm not much of a bronzer user but I will probably use this to try to get rid of my running shorts/sports bra tan.  Hopefully this won't turn me into an Oompa Loompa.

I have a love hate relationship with Zoya.  Their jelly polishes are so finicky and tend to bubble on me, their Pixie Dust polishes are sheer LOVE.  This pale blue creme polish is a meh to me.  The color is pretty for springtime but its a little gloppy and doesn't self level all that well.  I will add a few drops of polish thinner and see if that redeems this one.

This Yaby concealer was not a hit for me.  The color wasn't salmon enough for my under eye circles and it didn't work for my blemishes.  The texture wasn't all that blendable and it settles into my fine lines.

The Mirabella lipstick has a nice feel to it, creamy and not drying but the color is a fail.  Frosty 80s Barbie pink does nothing for my skin tone and it makes my teeth look yellow.

I am pretty thrilled about the Urban Decay shadow bonus.  Ipsy really outdid itself and the high end shadow single was the icing on the cake.  It is a glittery pink with iridescent sparkle.  Definitely not your daytime everyday shadow look, but for an evening out it really gives your eyes a pretty pop.  Lots of fall out with this folks, so I used a finger to apply and would suggest an eye primer to keep everything in place AND do your foundation after your eyes so you can easily brush away the fall out on your cheeks.

The Survival series of Beauty Subscriptions stands at Birchbox and Glossybox CANCELLED, Ipsy, Julep and TestTube still going strong.

Well played, Ipsy, well played.

Contouring - lose 5lbs without even trying

Have you ever wished that you had more defined cheek bones or that your face didn't look quite so puffy and round?  There are a few really easy make up techniques that you can use to give your face a little more definition and make it look like you've lost 5lbs without even working at it.  By playing up the natural shadows on your face, you can make your face look slimmer using a matte bronzer or even a matte shadow if you can find one in an appropriate shade.  As always, with any application - practice makes perfect and you can always wipe it off and try again.

The effect should always be subtle, and you should always apply with a light hand.  In the photos below, the only difference is the addition of a bit of matte bronzer to the hollows of my cheeks and to my jaw line and temples.  You should have to look pretty closely to see a difference between the two.  You don't want a streak of dark that is too noticeable, especially during the day.  You have a bit more room to play if it's a night time look as far as going more dramatic with the contour.

You can figure out where to apply by looking in the mirror and making a "fishy face"  sucking your cheeks in.  You want the contour to start at your hairline and be in a slight triangle shape with the wider area starting at the hair line and it coming to a point that ends in the line that comes straight down from the outside corner of your eye.  Don't bring it in too close to your mouth, you want the color to be the darkest at the hairline then softer as you get to the middle of the apple of the cheek.

You also want to apply it along the jaw line to make that area look slimmer as well as along your temples and hairline for a bit of warmth.  Usually if I'm using a bronzer to contour, I don't bother with a different color as a "bronzer".  It's just easier to sweep the same color under the jaw and along the temples to give my face a bit more life.

Here are a couple of brushes that I use pretty regularly.  The one on the left I use when I'm looking for a quick bit of definition.  The angled shape lets you get right into the hollow of your cheek and the soft fluffy bristles don't pick up too much product which looks too unnatural on the skin.  Keep a clean powder brush handy to blend out the bronzer if you over do it.  The Real Techniques Contour Brush I like for when I want a more precise application or when I'm doing my makeup for a special evening out.  Both work great, and even a plain old blush brush would work fine with powder bronzers.  If you have a cream bronzer that you want to contour with, just use your fingers in the same area and it will work just as well.  I prefer powders because my skin is oily and cream bronzers as well as blushes tend not to last very long on my skin.

Angled contour brush and Real Techniques Contour Brush

When picking a good bronzer to contour with, you want to stick to matte shades that do not have any shimmer or sparkle.  You are trying to deepen the shadows in an area and shimmer will only make that area look more noticeable.   The ones that I have listed in the picture below work for tons of skin tones and the texture is very easy to work with and they do not look orange on the skin.  You do not want to look like Snooki or an Oompa Loompa trust me.  They are in descending order of price with the NARS Laguna being the most expensive and the NYX Matte Bronzer really in the drugstore price range.  I reach for all three pretty equally, but will say that the Too Face Chocolate Soleil smells the best.

Top to Bottom:  Nars Laguna, Too Faced Chocolate Soleil, Nyx Matte Bronzer

You can also lightly contour your nose by using a fluffy eyeshadow blending brush and put the bronzer down the sides of your nose to make it look a little thinner.  Be cautious not to over do it in the nose area or your face is going to look really odd.

There are days when I skip the blush entirely and just add a bit of contour with lip stick. brows and mascara, then I'm out the door.

Birchbox April 2013 - Women's Health Box

I was ready to bash this month's box, really I was. I find that getting foil sample packets a bit of a disappointment, and I did not get the full sized chubby lip crayon that I was seeing on other people's blogs.  The subscription envy was strong this month.

Let's take a peek at the contents shall we?

Caudalie's Huile Divine - which is their response to the Josie Maran Argan oil phenom
Nexxus Anti Aging Hair serum
Strivectin anti wrinkle eye cream
YoungBlood's Anti Shine Mattifier
3 Weleda Body lotion samples

I hate to admit it but I'm actually going to use most of these samples (save for the hair serum one which sounds kind of hokey to me)

The Caudalie oil smells fantastic even if it is not exactly earth shattering and transformative on my hair. I'll give the YoungBlood mattifier a go in my T zone to see if it can keep my foundation from sliding right off my face after a few hours.  And who would say no to something that might actually help my fine lines and wrinkles.

Not me baby, not me.

So even if the Birchbox this month didn't blow my socks off, it was solid.   And I can deal with solid.

You can't outrun a bad diet

I've been fat a long time, and unhealthy for even longer than that. At my heaviest I weighed 188lbs, and on a 5'2 frame there is no way to shake it where the word FAT did not come out. I stopped shopping in department stores because having to go into the fat ladies section and trying stuff on was just demoralizing. I avoided photos, I ignored my expanding waistline as much as my huffing and puffing at the smallest exertion.

About a year ago my doctor gave me the Come To Jesus talk about my health and future. I was staring down the barrel of Type II diabetes if I did not get my shit together, and my weight under control.
It's kind of amazing how much denial one can be in until someone rubs your nose into your own pile of crap and tells you your choices are killing you.

So I started exercising, a lot. I lost 10lbs and two dress sizes and put on lots of lean muscle over the course of 6 months using P90X and TurboFire from BeachBody. I still feel TurboFire is my soulmate workout, and would recommend both programs whole heartedly.

It took me that long however to realize that you can't outrun (literally and figuratively) a bad diet. Exercise cannot cancel out the crappy food you put into your mouth and those choices are what end up sabotaging your results.

So in October I started a program called Take Shape For Life, which is a diet plan based on Medifast food with an awesome health coach (Shawna Barboni shawnaATbarboniDOTorg) who helps motivate you along the way.

I was and still am conflicted about these kind of diets where you severely restrict your calorie intake using prepackaged food and drop weight really quickly.  I'd done Nutrisystem, Weight Watchers and SlimFast in the past, and nothing was able to keep the weight off.  I always felt these kind of plans were essentially cheating your way to a slimmer body and didn't do anything for your cardio health at all.  In three months I dropped an additional very stubborn 15lbs and another dress size. I wasn't the model Medifast client and I didn't have an enormous amount of weight I wanted to drop. I cheated here and there and I continued to exercise vigorously.

What my time on TSFL taught me is that there is no one solution. You cannot approach it as you would a short term diet, and all your choices, make a difference. My short stint on Medifast helped me look at food as fuel, and use it as a tool to a greater goal. The quick 15 lbs helped to further motivate me and challenge me to take my fitness to another level by starting to run regularly.

My TSFL coach lost over 100lbs, so you can see that it is darn effective.

I still use some of my leftover Medifast meals to help control my eating choices during the week but I'm in a cardio focus these days. It is nice to have the options nearby when I am tempted by my kids' snacks or the drive thru.

I don't feel like I've been cheating anymore by using TSFL to help drop some weight. It has motivated me to become even more active, to push myself farther than I thought I could go, but it isn't the only weapon in my arsenal either.

I'm probably about 15 lbs from my dream body, and currently at my "goal" weight as far as dieting is concerned. I'm going to work on my endurance, muscle tone and overall strength and I figure the rest will be along shortly.

MOVE more, EAT better, BE BETTER.

Double chin city - 2006?

March 2013

St. Patty's Day 10K