Category Archives: Tips and Tricks

Organizing Eye Shadows So They Take Up Less Space

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Holiday gift sets are often a double edged sword. You get a heck of a deal, but the ornate packaging that surrounds the makeup is often too bulky to take home The colors are great, but where would I put it?

Remember Smashbox’s Eye Wish palette I just reviewed? I really like it, but once I took out the primer and mascara, the box contained just the shadows and it was really bulky so there was no room to stash it with my other shadows. My solution? Break that sucker apart and repackage it my way.

Here’s what I did.

First, a look at the box, both closed and opened.
I bent the palette until the corners of the shadows raised up a little bit so I could slide a butter knife under each shadow slowly so they’d release, but not pop out which could cause them to crack and break.

Luckily, they’re attached with a small dot of adhesive so they’re really easy to free.

Well, you’ve popped them out. Now what? Grab a CD case and remove everything from the inside. This is the new, slender home for those shadows and liners in the palette that will now take up about half the space.

Shadows on the left, liners on the right. See the dark shadow on the top that I cracked? Be really careful and patient getting them out.

Close up the lid and lazily peel away some of the ‘Features ‘Because You Loved Me” from your Celine Dion Falling Into You CD (optional of course). See where the plastic opens along the left side? I later moved that left row of shadows under it over to the column on the right so the shadows weren’t exposed. 

See the difference in thickness from the original palette to the CD case?

Of course this isn’t exclusive to just this palette, you can also do it to your shadow singles so you can round them up in one area. For singles, I hold the shadow 4- 5 inches above a candle flame (be careful) until it starts to heat (but not melt) just so the adhesive becomes soft. Use something thin and sharp (like an X-Acto knife but again – be careful) to lightly lift the metal pan from the packaging.

Organizing your makeup is like organizing your closet, if you can’t see it you won’t use it. Use this, along with the pill box trick I showed you a while back to begin organizing your ever-growing beauty collection.

Dr. Oz Presents; An Ultimate Beauty Day

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Does how you live affect the way you look? Absolutely. You remember the Twin Study I posted a while back, it’s the perfect example of the life you live showing up on your face. We know what not to do (smoke, tan, eat poorly) in order to look great, but what should we be doing exactly? Dr. Oz outlines a full day offering tips on how to get your body healthy and beautiful from the inside out.

You can read it HERE on Oprah.com.

Makeup for Tomboys

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Maybe you haven’t always been a girly girl and this whole makeup thing is new to you. There are things out there that will help you to apply makeup like a pro even if you have no idea what you’re doing.

Click HERE to read what I think works for recovering tomboys and novice makeup gals alike.

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Permanent Makeup; As Awful As It Sounds

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Is there a hidden camera on me? Because I’ve been scrubbing away at your eyes for a good 5 minutes and this eyeliner isn’t budging! Oh, it’s tattooed on you say? That info would’ve been fantastic about 6 minutes ago before I nearly rubbed the skin off of your eyes. I felt like a kid trying to blow out trick candles on their birthday cake, wiping and wiping with nothing coming off. Tattooed makeup 1, me 0.

Tattooed brows, lip, and eye liner was all the rage years ago when women discovered an easy way to have makeup perfectly placed at all times. Problem is though, it’s rarely (if ever) that perfect.

Here’s an ‘after’ pic from a company’s website that does the procedures. They’re calling it a success, but I’d say it’s not good, or even, or modern for that matter. Your face is at the mercy of someone who is one extra cup of coffee away from giving you a jagged line around your eyes that resembles the Dow Jones report. Who wants eyeliner in the presence of wearing no makeup anyway? It looks weird by itself which forces you to apply it more often just to balance things out.

Eyeliner trends come and go, do you really want to commit yourself to having a plum colored liner all the way around your eyes for the rest of your life? Yes black is timeless, but it eventually fades and looks like a blueish prison tattoo.

I’ve met dozens of women who have had permanent makeup done and most of them  say they wouldn’t do it again. Today’s makeup is waterproof, smudge-proof, and flake-resistant so it’s meant to wear all throughout the day. I can’t come up with one solid reason as to why makeup should be permanent, and neither should you.

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No-Commitment Beauty Transformations at Elle.com

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These virtual try on new hair and makeup things online keep getting better and better. This one you see below is from Elle.com where you can use your photo, or choose one of their models to ‘try on’ different hairstyles, makeup looks, and even accessories like earrings and hats.

Click HERE to change your hair in an instant without any fear.

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