makeup – Sophia Ravenna

NYX Stone Fox

April 15, 2016Sophia Ravenna

Diving into unconventional lip colors sounds like a fun and adventurous way to express your style! Stone Fox by NYX Liquid Suede is definitely a bold choice, and it's great that seeing it on someone else inspired you to give it a try. Sometimes a unique shade can really lift your spirits and refresh your look.

If you find yourself frequently exploring and collecting new makeup shades, you might find it helpful to use a tool like Latenode to organize your collection. Latenode can help you catalog your makeup items, track when and where you've used them, or even set reminders for when to wear certain colors based on your schedule or planned events. This could be particularly useful if you want to ensure that every unique color gets its moment to shine.

Additionally, Latenode can automate the sharing of your makeup explorations on social media or your blog, if you enjoy sharing reviews or creating content around your beauty experiments. This way, you can seamlessly integrate your new finds with your online presence, helping you keep your followers engaged with fresh and exciting content without needing to manually manage every post. Whether it's showcasing a bold new lip color or coordinating full makeup looks, Latenode can streamline the process, allowing you more time to enjoy the creative aspects of beauty blogging.

But… Is it really that ridiculous? I mean, OK, obviously I’m not going to just casually throw on a deep, slatey grey lip the next time I’m out for dinner with my husband, or for every performance. But for when I want something really dark and dramatic, I think this is more daring than a dark red or purple, but less harsh than pure black. I’d put it right up there as a favorite non-black Gothy lip color, along with Ayesha from Kat Von D and Marshmallow from ColourPop.

Although my swatch above shows the color as being glossy, it hadn’t dried down yet. It dries to a soft matte finish, but not one of those ultra-mattes that dries the lips out. I found it to be pretty easy to wear all night. Also, you can’t really tell in the top image, but I dusted a bit of gunmetal glitter on while it was drying, which looked really cool. This color was perfect with my gunmetal sequin costume and silver eye shadow for last week’s Open Stage.

To be honest, I’m really not sure what the difference is between the formula of the Soft Matte Lip Cremes and the Liquid Suede. NYX has a dizzying amount of lip formulas, but they all seem to perform pretty well so I think it boils down to what kind of color and finish you want. NYX’s website says the Liquid Suede line is water proof and does not say that about the SMLC, so that could be the primary difference. Both are long-wearing though. I wore Stone Fox for a performance, drank water all through the show, then had a beer after and my lips still looked good at the end of the night.

Whether or not you like Stone Fox, I’d recommend having a look at the Liquid Suedes to see if there’s a color that strikes your fancy, because this is a great affordable lip product that will hold up all night, and the matte finish means neither your hair nor your veil will get stuck in it.

ColourPop Ultra Satin Lips

March 25, 2016March 24, 2016Sophia Ravenna

Spoiler alert: I really like these! Ultra Satin Lip is the latest lip product from indie cult favorite makeup brand ColourPop. I recently treated myself to two colors and the matching lip pencils, and now that I’ve tried them out, I’m ready to review them for you.

Ultra Satin Lip is a liquid lip formula. Unlike all the matte formulas currently on the market, it has a satiny sheen and is not budge-proof, but it’s also not as drying as a matte lip. Because I have dry lips and currently live in a very dry climate, this formula is better for me even if it doesn’t last as long as my lips. Let’s look at the two colors I picked out: London Fog, and Marshmallow.

London Fog is a vibrant blue-based red. It might be the reddest red that I own! It’s bright and beautiful and bold, and my husband couldn’t stop staring at my lips. This is a great one for stage, and I think burlesque and pin-up gals may want to give it a look too because it’s such a classic color. It applied really nicely, both the pencil and the satin lip, and dried down quickly to an almost-matte satin sheen. I found it a bit drying, but I did not prime my lips with a moisturizing product beforehand. Also, I decided to wear this when going out for pizza and the grease from my dinner basically destroyed it, so if you’re going to eat out, plan to re-apply after your meal!

I think this color is going to be a great one for summer as it is so vivacious. The challenge may be figuring out what sort of eye color to pair it with… Maybe something gold?

Marshmallow is a weird one. It’s a greyed lavender color, and I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to wear it, but once I put it on I fell in love with it. It’s got a sort of gothy spooky look, so it’s a nice option if you like to go Goth but you’re not into the dark lip look. I also think it would pair nicely with some of the pastel eye shadows that are on the market right now. I love the idea of this with a silvery lavender eye for an elegant ghostly look.

Although the pencil looks darker than the liquid product in the swatch above, they wore together just fine (I’m wearing both in the example image above).

Ultra Satin Lips come in a plastic tube with a rather standard doe foot applicator, nothing special but it works well. Because it’s only $6 for the Ultra Satin Lips and $5 for the pencils, they’re an affordable way to add some good color variety to your collection.

Viseart Eyeshadow Palettes

March 18, 2016Sophia Ravenna

Ok, I’m going to kick this one off with a disclaimer. These palettes are $80 each. It’s kind of ironic to be reviewing such a luxury item after my anti-haul inspired post last week… That said, I only bought these two Viseart palettes because I received $150 in Sephora gift cards for the holidays and I thought I should splurge on something special instead of buying a lot of smaller items. So I’m only recommending these if you are looking to get yourself something really special, or if someone wants to buy you a nice gift.

That said, these are really nice palettes and I am glad I decided to buy them!

Let’s discuss the palettes in general, then I’ll get down to specific reviews of the two I have. They come in acrylic cases with a clear lid with a tiny matte slate Viseart logo on the top. The lid hinges via metal pins, so it’s flush and doesn’t have those little plastic hinges that might break off. The packaging feels pretty sturdy. For $80 you might expect something a little fancier-looking, but since these are designed for professional makeup artists, it makes sense that they’d have a clear lid so an artist can quickly see at a glance which palette they’re looking at and what colors they have at their disposal.

And because they’re made for makeup artists, with the idea that you’d buy them all (with some sort of pro discount so you’re not actually paying $80 each…) they’re grouped along themes like mattes or satins, with the idea that you would mix and match to create the look you need. Most of these palettes would not stand alone to create a smoky eye or cut crease look. Instead, consumers like us should choose 1 or 2 palettes that have colors they think they would wear a lot, and then supplement with colors from the rest of our collection. I’ll get into why I chose the two that I did below.

Of the two palettes, I’ve definitely used Paris Nude more often. I chose this one because I thought all of the colors would look really good with my green eyes, and there were a good amount of shades that I didn’t already have. That said, these colors are probably easier to dupe than the other palette I picked out, which is why when I thought I was only going to buy one, I wasn’t going to get this.

I’ve been wearing this a lot because the colors are so versatile. I can add some colors from other palettes to craft a really elegant neutral look for performing, or I can brush 1-2 shades from this palette on for a nice daytime look or an elegant date night eye. All of these colors have a satiny shimmer, and a couple have really fine glitter. Although the colors are a little more subdued, they’re still highly pigmented. I’ve been happy with how they wear. If I wear them all day, they might look a little faded/less shimmery by the end of the night, but the fading is very even, so I just have a softer look than I started the day with, but it’s not patchy.

Arm swatch of four randomly-chosen colors.

This is a pretty good palette for traveling. I could pack this and my favorite almost-black color, and have an easy way to go from day to night or even do a performance look.

If you’re only going to buy one Viseart palette, I’d strongly suggest the Dark Matte palette. I haven’t used it as much, because I haven’t been performing as often, but the colors I have worn have really impressed me. These sort of dark, intense matte colors are often poorly formulated in other brands, going on patchily or not appears very dark on the skin. These colors are intensely pigmented and there are some very unusual shades, so this would be a difficult palette to duplicate.

I have to say, I figured I wouldn’t really use the red and orange shades in this palette, but looking at how beautifully that burnt orange swatched on my arm, I am definitely going to be making a look built around that color. It’s gorgeous! I think this palette would be especially good for holding up to stage lights, because the colors are really dense. They’re not going to wash out in bright light, and you can use them to build a really bold look.

Now for the ridiculous confession… even though I’ve worn these two palettes a lot lately, to test them for my blog… I don’t have any close-up pictures of my eyes wearing them. UGH! You’ll have to take my word at it that they look really good on.

Over all, I’d say these are a nice splurge if you’re serious about eye shadow and you want to have one really nice palette that you can build some looks around. I’m pretty sure Sephora will have another VIB sale within the next month and a half, since they usually have one in April it seems, so maybe wait until you can get a discount and then Treat Yo Self!

How to Decide What to Buy

March 11, 2016March 15, 2016Sophia Ravenna

Earlier this week I killed some time on YouTube watching Kimberly Clark’s anti-haul videos (first one here). If you don’t have the time or desire to watch a 25 minute video, what it boils down to is a drag queen going through a list of much-hyped beauty products, why she’s not going to buy them, and why maybe you shouldn’t either.

This is pretty timely for me, because as I look towards moving to Seattle, I really have to cut down on my makeup spending. Besides, there’s really not a lot of room left for new products in my makeup storage, so I’m starting to be a lot more picky about what I actually buy. It’s hard though, because I really enjoy watching makeup videos on YouTube on my lunch break, and it seems like there’s this constant “This is the best liquid lipstick formula ever” (I go and buy two or three colors) “No wait guys, this is the best!” and so on and so on. Everything is the next must-have, better than the one that released last month… And it really is a monthly basis. Remember when it was a big deal when Urban Decay dropped a new palette? Now it seems like they release 3-4 a year, at a minimum.

In the past, I was terrible. I’d buy a palette because it had one or two pretty shades of green. But now I have a series of questions I ask myself before I buy new makeup.

“Do I need it?” Look, if I’m out of foundation or mascara, I need to replace it before my next performance. No questions asked. If I need it, I can buy it.

“Why do I want to buy this?” Sometimes I want to buy something because I’m bored. Sometimes it’s just pretty and shiny. Other times a product would be a really good match for a new costume. Frequently, I want to buy it so I can see if it’s really as cool as people are saying, and review it here. I only get to indulge in those first two reasons if I just got some birthday money or there’s a big Sephora sale or it’s cheap.

“How often will I wear this?” If I have given myself permission to buy makeup just for fun but I can’t decide what to buy, I try to choose the product I’m likely to wear more often. A weird color of lipstick won’t get a lot of use, but a versatile highlighter might.

“Am I sure I don’t have something similar already?” If I’m looking to try a new formula of lipstick or eye shadow, I have to be really careful to make sure I’m not buying a color almost identical to what I already have, because I tend to drift towards similar shades time and again. And along those lines — really how many blushes or highlighters do I really need? Minor shade variations don’t make that much of a difference.

“Do I really have to buy it right now?” Sometimes if an item is limited edition or being discontinued, there’s not a lot of time to dwell on a decision. But often if there’s no urgency, and I don’t give in to the desire to buy it right away because some vlogger said it was cool, I realize later that I didn’t want it that badly.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m going to keep buying makeup! But I’m hoping that if I keep asking myself these questions, I won’t end up with the same shade of lipstick in six different formulas, and enough palettes to fill a closet.

What Did I Pack for Massive?

March 4, 2016February 26, 2016Sophia Ravenna

I thought it might be fun to occasionally do a quick, casual post about what I threw in my makeup bag for a specific trip. This first post is about Tribal Massive!

My packing decisions were influenced by two things: The big one was that I wasn’t performing, and the other was that I wasn’t flying.

The first thing meant that I didn’t have to really bring my foundation or contour kit, or worry about packing makeup to match a costume, or bring glitter, or any of that. The second thing meant I could throw everything together in my big cosmetics bag and not worry about separating out the liquids or playing Jenga to fit my makeup and my laptop in the same bag in a way that is easy to get both out to go through security.

As such, the makeup I grabbed is a collection of old favorites and a few newer things I’ve been testing for future blog posts. Right at the center are my Viseart palettes, which were my special holiday treat to myself when I received TWO Sephora gift cards. I’m really enjoying them but I’ve been wanting to try more colors before I review them, but I haven’t been performing much. I might end up walking around Vegas rocking some serious dark mattes just so I can try more of these colors.

In addition to what I’ve shown here, I also later threw in my Becca highlighter because I wanted to use this trip as a chance to work on my highlighting technique some more before my next performance.

As for how I packed it, most of the cosmetics go in the pocket on the right, and the brushes and my perfume and mascara went in the pocket on the left. I like that the bag also has a hanging loop, which is great when I end up in a bathroom with no counter space, or if I’m sharing with another dancer!

Battle of the Highlighters: Becca vs. ColourPop

February 19, 2016February 18, 2016Sophia Ravenna

After the cosmetics companies got all of us to invest a lot of money into contour kits that were primarily focused on shadows and subtle highlights, they switched towards the end of last year and suddenly the focus was highlighters and strobing. A lot of artists and enthusiasts seem to have reacted to “strobing is the next big thing!” with a big “LOL that’s just highlighting, we already own products for that, thanks!” but that hasn’t stopped companies from either making new products or more heavily promoting their existing highlighters.

I’m not about to go crazy over highlighters, but they do appeal to me more than contour powders. For one thing, contour powders are not very exciting and there’s not a lot of variety. The idea is to create the illusion of shadow, so once you finally find a product that creates a convincing shadow on your skin tone, you’re set. You may want varying intensities depending on whether you’re doing a lightweight contour or a full “I must withstand the glare of stage lights” contour, but that’s about it. However, with highlighters you have a lot more options, whether you want to just echo the natural effect of light hitting the high spots of your face, or whether you want to sparkle like a magical faerie.

I think we both know where I fall on that spectrum, so today we’re looking at two shimmering, sparkling highlighters. I thought it would be fun to splurge on a luxury highlighter and compare it to a budget highlighter. You can probably find more expensive and cheaper options, but these are two popular options.

Although I chose two really pale options because I am a really pale girl, both of these brands have a variety of highlighters to choose from. Shimmering Skin Perfector by Becca comes in 7 shades and ColourPop Highlighters come in 20 shades, so there’s an option for everyone.

Let’s look at the two products side-by-side first. Shimmering Skin Perfector is $38 for .25oz of product. It comes in a compact with a mirror. It’s a pretty sleek presentation, matte black with a metal insert. Very sophisticated. ColourPop highlighters are $8 for 1.5oz, so you’re getting 6 times the product for $30 less. It comes in the same packaging as all ColourPop products, a white jar with a twist-off lid that has a clear window decorated with the CP logo.

Top: Becca Bottom: ColourPop — Top: Becca
Bottom: ColourPop

I did not choose colors that are exact duplicates, but I did choose two colors that I thought would suit me well. From Becca I chose Pearl, which is a pure shimmering white, neutral leaning towards cool. From ColourPop I chose Stole the Show, which is a cool golden white with iridescent pink, gold and silver. Pearl is like crushed pearls while Stole the Show is more like crushed opals. Both could be made with magical pixie dust for how sparkly they are.

Let’s talk about the Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector first, since I tried it first. It came with a little plastic insert that I threw out but probably should have kept, because the product is a little powdery and now there’s highlighter on the mirror and the outside of the compact. This is a fine pressed powder and surprisingly a little goes a long way. I applied it lightly with a fan brush and still got a noticeable glow across my cheekbones. It may be only .25oz of product but I suspect it might last you forever if you take good care of it.

I suspect this product could be built to a much more opaque coverage, based on the arm swatch (both swatches were applied with a finger). As such, it’s pretty versatile. Brush it on lightly for non-performance makeup or small venues, then build it up for brighter lights or just because you want to be extra sparkly. If you’re in the market for a luxury highlighter, definitely give Becca a look.

Like other ColourPop products, Stole the Show is a creamy moussey product. As such, while the package holds a lot more than the Becca compact, I suspect it may dry out before you can use it all. I applied it with a finger then blended out with a brush, as ColourPop recommends fingers, but you can use a brush if you’d rather not be poking your makeup. I was worried it would be too intense when I saw it on my finger, but it actually diffused out nicely and I didn’t feel crazy wearing this for Valentine’s Day.

I can see this one really building up to greater, ridiculously sparkly intensity. Because it has a light, creamy texture, you may even be able to use it as a base for glitter if you’re going for a real fantasy stage makeup look (I’m thinking of that one picture of Rachel Brice with a glitter cheek highlight). I wouldn’t be surprised if you could also use it on your eyes. The glitter in it is a fine shimmer, so I wouldn’t be worried about fallout, but since it’s not a specific eye product, use your own best judgement. If you’re looking to get into the highlighter game without breaking your budget, definitely check out ColourPop.

Ultimately, I feel like either of these products would work well for a belly dancer who wants a really shimmery highlight for her performance makeup, while also being able to do double-duty for cocktail parties and other formal occasions. They’re probably too shimmery for daily wear, unless your usual look tends towards the glamorous or sparkly. Dancers who prefer a more natural highlight will probably want to check out other formulas that have less shimmer.

Love Flush Blush Wardrobe

February 5, 2016February 5, 2016Sophia Ravenna

The Love Flush Blush Wardrobe is a limited-edition palette from Too Faced and it appears to be sold out on-line. However, you may still find one floating around your neighborhood Sephora, and you can still buy the blushes individually, so it seems fair to go ahead and review it. Besides, Valentine’s Day is right around the corner and I wanted to review something with hearts on it.

This is a collection of all six of Too Faced’s Love Flush blushes. There’s a really good mix of colors, from light to dark, coral to plum, and various degrees of shimmer. Each has a cute love-themed name (I think they’re all song titles?). The pans are significantly smaller than a normal blush, but you still get a lot of product for the price and it’s a good way to try a few colors to see which one you like best. The pans are still big enough to accommodate any of the brushes I usually use for my blush, and since they are separate pans with a little space between them, you don’t end up with fallout drifting between the colors.

That’s a package of the box it comes in, but the design on the outside of the actual palette is the same, with the scattering of hearts with the Too Faced logo on them, and the little bunnies. It’s a cardboard palette, relatively slim and low-profile, but the fact that it’s so long may make it difficult to pack for traveling.

So far I’ve tried three of the blushes, sticking to the cooler tones as they go better with my winter wardrobe and the costumes I’ve been wearing lately. I’ll probably hit the warmer colors as my makeup gets brighter and bolder in the summer. I like that this palette gives me options that work well for every day, or for performance. I’ve found that the blush is highly-pigmented, though not to the point of being opaque. It goes on well and it’s easy to blend out the edges. I haven’t tested out the claim of 16 hours of wear, but “Your Love is King” (the dark plummy shade) held up well to last night’s Open Stage dancing.

If you like the look of the palette, you’ll probably like the individual blushes. They come in heart-shaped compacts and the blush has an embossed design on it. I think Too Faced tends to do a good job of having cute concepts (like the chocolate bar palettes) while still delivering a high-quality product that you’ll actually get a lot of use from. It’s nice to not have to compromise between having something that’s fun to look at, and good quality grown-up makeup.

Everlasting Liquid Lipstick

January 8, 2016Sophia Ravenna

Image shamelessly lifted from Sephora's website. — Image shamelessly lifted from Sephora’s website.

I’d been hearing good things about Kat Von D’s Everlasting Liquid Lipstick and I’m a fan of the brand in general, so last month I ordered “Ayesha” which is a beautiful lavender shade. I just love purple lipsticks!

I wore Ayesha for dinner on NYE. I mean, what better time to test a lip product than an evening of eating and more drinking than I usually indulge in? So I paired it with a mixed metal eye look… also using Kat Von D eye shadow, because like I said, I’m a fan of the brand (Monarch Palette FTW!).

So I really like the color. It’s sort of a beautiful orchid shade, just warm enough that it doesn’t wash me out. It’s really unusual without being over-the-top. I could see myself wearing this to perform, with the right costume. And I can definitely see myself wearing it to go out again.

My main concern is that the coverage is not as opaque as I would like. I feel like it would benefit from being worn over a liner or maybe a base color. I’d like to play with it some more. I did find that it was easy to re-apply when I had a little color loss after dinner and people wanted to take pictures. I’ve heard that’s a concern with some liquid lipsticks, but this one did not have an issue.

What I really appreciated was that although this dries down to a matte finish, it did not destroy my lips like the ColourPop matte liquid lipstick that I tried. As I mentioned in that review, my lips tend to be pretty dry normally, especially in the winter, so I have to be careful with the matte lip trend. This formula seems to play well with my lips so I think I’ll pick up another color or two in the coming months. I like that it comes in 29 shades ranging from pale nude to pure black, some subtle and some over the top, so there’s an option for just about everyone.

By the way, my goal is to eventually do a big liquid lipstick smack-down test, maybe once I move to Seattle and my lips will be benefiting from a less arid climate! Which brands would you like to see me review? I think the next one I pick up will be the new tarte line with the ridiculous millennial slang names.

2015 Eye Shadow Faves!

December 18, 2015Sophia Ravenna

24 glorious colors! — Mi Vida Loca palette is probably my favorite purchase for the year.

Today I had planned to give you a little sneak-peak at some things I purchased from ColourPop, but despite the fact that my order was supposed to arrive today, the tracking info hasn’t been updated since Tuesday! Who knows when my makeup will arrive? My Makeup Geek order that shipped this morning might even arrive first. We’ll see. Anyway! On to Plan B! Well, Plan B and a Half, really. Because I was going to do “favorite purchases of 2015” but then I realized I liked a whooooole lot of things, so I narrowed it down to just eye shadows.

Let’s start back in January and work our way forwards. I’ll link to my original review of the product and then give an update on how I feel about these shadows after repeated use.

ColourPop Super Shock Shadows. I didn’t realize I’d had these for about a year now! So the good news is, I just used one the other day and it hasn’t dried out. Sealing the jar really does do the trick even in this super-dry AZ climate. That said, I probably should make sure to use them more often because who knows how long they’ll hold out? Chipper remains one of my favorite colors. I don’t use the others as often. I think I would use them more often if they weren’t in individual jars. That’s the big limitation of this formula, it can’t be made into a palette and I can’t de-pot it and put it in a Z-Palette. I wouldn’t want to travel with more than 2 or 3 colors in addition to a regular palette. But the colors are amazing and I still really appreciate that the company is cruelty free and made in the USA.

Kat Von D Metal Crush Eye Shadows. I haven’t carried through with my promise to buy ALL of these, but I am up to 4 colors now. I really like how rich and metallic these are. I don’t think I have room for the entire collection, though. I may have to de-pot them and give them their very own Z-Palette if I want to buy the whole set. Oh, and they finally released the 11th color, it’s a metallic rusty orange. My most recent purchase is the blue one. I want to combine it with the green one to make a cool jewel beetle themed eye look. Once I figure it out I’ll make a tutorial.

Kat Von D Mi Vida Loca Palette. Look, I really like Kat Von D’s eye shadows. I still regularly use the Monarch palette (I just took it on a long weekend trip). And Mi Vida Loca is just an amazing palette. I did bring it along on my 3.5 week PNW adventure and I used it for all my photo shoots and performances. It’s pretty big to travel with, so I wouldn’t take it along for most trips, but I am definitely going to keep using it at home.

Makeup Geek Duochromes. Pressed shadows and pigments alike, these are a GREAT product! I haven’t used them too much more since the original review, as I haven’t been doing my makeup much lately. I will probably pick up a few more colors over time, although maybe only pressed shadows as I think my pigment drawer is full right now (might be time to clean out some of the colors I never wear). I really think these are a great option for belly dancers as they are an easy way to get a lot of depth in your makeup look.

So those are my favorite eye shadow purchases of 2015. How about yours?

My new concealer and foundation

December 4, 2015Sophia Ravenna

So recently I had to replace both my concealer and my foundation. Luckily my foundation managed to hold out until the Sephora 20% off VIB sale last month, so I was able to save some money on that big investment.

I had previously been using MUFE products for both my foundation and concealer, and while they both worked fine, I wasn’t 100% in love with them so I was willing to try something new. Especially on the concealer front, I felt like the color I had was not quite right, and I didn’t like the weird applicator.

Let’s talk about the concealer first, since I purchased it first.

When I went into Sephora and asked for help finding a new concealer, I was really excited when the lovely employee told me that she was actually really liking the new Sephora brand one. The last time I bought concealer they tried to sell me the suuuuuuper expensive Nars one but they were out of my color so I ended up with MUFE which was still pricey. The Bright Future Gel Serum Concealer is only $14 and it came in the perfect shade for my complexion, which means I can easily wear it over or under my foundation. It’s not super heavy, but it has good coverage and it applies very smoothly. It especially does a great job of hiding blemishes, but I also use it under my eyes. It comes in 20 shades ranging from really pale to really dark, with neutral, pink and yellow undertone options, so there should be one for most shades of skin. It has a standard doe foot applicator. I like to put a dab on the back of my hand and use my finger to apply it and a brush to smooth it out, that way I’m not getting face oil all up in my tube of concealer.

My new foundation is Urban Decay’s Naked Skin in color 0.5. I had another very nice Sephora employee helping me and she tried a few different brands on me and with each one I was like “Nope, it’s not quite right” but when she put a little of this on my face I liked it and when she said “should I apply it all over your face?” I was like “yes, let’s try it!” and my skin looked so good I was SOLD! I feel like not only is this a good color match for me, but it gives me a nice “flawless” look without being too heavy. It might eventually prove to be too lightweight for bigger stages with brighter lights (I need to see if it builds up well or has to remain relatively light) but for the sort of smaller gigs I do it is ideal. It has a pump dispenser, which I tend to like better than foundations in squeezy tubes. It comes in 18 shades, and seems to trend more towards the warm, so if you have dark skin with a cool undertone this is probably not the right product for you.

My face with Naked foundation and Bright Future concealer.

With my old foundation, I felt like even if I applied it relatively lightly, it left me looking really washed out so I had to build my face back up with lots of blush. The lighter coverage and more natural finish of Naked Skin means that if I was having a bad skin day, I could put some of this on and not have to add blush and contouring if I didn’t want to, or just do a very light natural blush. In the above photo, I’ve layered Naked Skin over the MUFE primer and set it with MUFE HD setting powder (which I will probably not run out of until I am 75, seriously, that stuff lasts forever). I used the concealer under my eyes and over a couple of pimples on my chin. I’m pretty happy with how natural my skin looks!

So that’s what’s new with my face!