Summer Makeup, Day and Night

While I have tanned considerably in the past few weeks, it seems Blogger is determined to make me look even more like a bronze statue. For some reason, when I upload these pictures, the overall tone becomes considerably yellow. This disturbs me as someone who has always aspired to have fair skin, but more importantly, it's getting in my way of blogging. /waves fist at Blogger

Here in New York, we've been having a great prelude to summer – the weather has been temperate and spring showers relatively rare – and I've already settled into the look I'll be wearing for most of the next three months. It basically consists of Jeremy Renner's Guide to Makeup:

... because I now require 2-3 blotting papers every session to soak up the oil on my face. Anything else will simply not do. So! I concentrate the color on my cheeks and lips and call it a day.

For daytime, I like to use bright colors to distract people from the fact that I didn't bother with anything else. I'm kidding! Didn't we wait all year to actually be encouraged to wear obnoxiously bright colors? A recent find is the Sisley Phyto-Lip Twist, which is a tinted balm; a super-charged Clinique Chubby Stick, if you will. As much as I absolutely disagree with the price ($50!), these sticks are in a league of its own. It feels like a balm, is pigmented like a lipstick, but has the shine of a gloss. It has a twist-up mechanism so you won't have to sharpen and waste, which is really a necessity at this price point. I hate to say it, but it's the best I've tried within the lip crayon category.

For night, I like the idea of vamping it up (who am I kidding? I always like the idea of vamping it up). Below, a sweep of Burberry Earthy creates a subtle contour to complement the dark lip, courtesy of Addiction Vamp.

For brows, I have gotten into the habit of penciling them in then going over them with brow powder. I tightline my eyes to give my lashes more definition, then finish with a coat of mascara.

As a conscious reaction to my earlier post about skin, I eschewed foundation for this post. I concealed under my eyes and highlighted under my brow bones, around the inner corners of my eyes, above my cheekbones, and above my cupid's bow. Man, after writing that out, I realized that a "natural glow" takes a lot of work!

Products Used:
Le Metiér de Beauté Peau Vierge Correcteur Concealer Shade 1
Shu Uemura Retractable Eyebrow Pencil in Seal Brown
Suqqu Balancing Eyebrow Palette 01 Moss Green
THREE Flash Performance Eyeliner Pencil 05
Sisley So Intense Mascara in Deep Black
Clé de Peau Beauté Luminizing Face Enhancer in Delicate Pink
Day Makeup: Burberry Tangerine Blush + Sisley Phyto-Lip Twist #4 Pinky
Night Makeup: Burberry Earthy Blush + Addiction Vamp Lipstick

New Year Sparkle: Ushering In 2013 With Style

Today's post will be a little unorthodox. It was supposed to be a post featuring the de facto New Year's Eve look (metallic lids and vamp lips) in collaboration with a few of my blogger friends. I did the look, but instead of taking my usual slew of deer in headlights close-ups, I invited my housemate for a fun photo shoot instead. We've been living together for three months and have since became best friends, but we didn't even have a blurry iPhone of each other. It was time.

An embarrassing amount of pictures were just of us howling in laughter, but for the sake of relevance I picked the few that most clearly showed my makeup.

She insisted a family picture includes our large soft toys

And we needed props for uh, festive points

For the look, I used Giorgio Armani Eyes To Kill Intense #19 on my eyelid and smoked out the crease with Addiction Midnight Oasis. I tightlined with a black eye pencil and layered on the mascara. Lips are Chanel Rouge Allure Rouge Noir #109 layered with Dior Addict Ultra Gloss in Black-Tie Plum #982 (as seen in this post) and Burberry Lip Velvet in No. 310 Military Red layered with Guerlain Rouge G Garconne. There was no particular reason for using two red lipsticks. I just wanted a sheen instead of a matte but didn't want to go through the hassle of removing the Burberry, which I was already wearing.

Do remember to see how my other friends are ushering in the new year:
A Little Bit Of Everything
Beaute Fabuleuse
BellaChique
Bronzer Bunny
ChloeAsh‎
Eye Heart It
Joey’space
Messy Wands
Mostly Sunny
Musing On Beauty

Lipstick Bandits: Vamp

I swear we've been planning for this topic since July. Larie and I have certainly been through every. vamp. lipstick we could get our hands on to find the perfect one. I thought I've already found mine in Chanel Rouge Allure Rouge Noir, but who ever said I could only have one?

The other lipstick in question is Le Métier de Beauté Kona Lipstick, a deep burgandy plum.

Smiley picture! (Well, I was actually laughing at the camera here)

I have been known to cheat in my Bandit assignments, but this time it's out of necessity! Whether it's the cold weather or I'm not rigorous enough with my lip balm application, my lips have been peeling so badly I look like I have lip dandruff.

Suffice to say, dark lipstick on patchy lips isn't the best scene, but I found Le Métier de Beauté La Belle Sheer Brilliance Lip Gloss to be a great topper for vamps. The sheer sparkly brown (don't be fooled by the swatch below, it's really sheer when on the lips) deepens the base shade just a little, and in some cases, make it look just right.

L-R: Kona, La Belle, MUFE #13C

Le Métier de Beauté Kona and La Belle can be found at Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, and of course, Bergdorf Goodman.

On to the best part of Lipstick Bandit days! Make sure you check out what my fellow masked cohorts are sporting:

• Beauty Reflections
• Call It Beauty
• Eye Heart It
• Getting Cheeky
• Glitter Geek
• Makeup Morsels
• Musing on Beauty
• My Funny Valentine
• My Women Stuff
• Rocaille Writes
• theNotice: a beauty blog‎

Full disclosure: This entry contains sample products sent by PR or the manufacturer for editorial consideration.

Dior Addict Ultra Gloss in Black-Tie Plum #982

In case there is any confusion, I took the pictures below before my haircut. I know, I look like a totally different person.

While I am definitely enjoying the myriad of new lipstick offerings we have this season, I feel the need to shower some love to its glossier counterparts. If you can believe it, Dior Addict Ultra Gloss in Black-Tie Plum #982 was one of the first few glosses I owned. 

I think it was my second semester at college. At that time I barely read beauty blogs and use little makeup (what I did to pass time, I wonder). The Dior SAs were friendly enough, and seeing my noobishness, plied me with every product they could sell me. I glanced through, nodding to be nice but wasn't committed until I saw this gloss. The SA told me they were the first and only high end brand that had such a deep gloss in its permanent collection. I don't know if that was true, but I will say till this day I haven't found a dark plum to rival this.

L-R: Dior Black-Tie Plum, Chanel Rouge Allure Rouge Noir

The eye look is basically LMdB Plum Eyeshadow layered above look 1 in this tutorial

On its own, Black-Tie Plum is a glossy wine-berry that can be layered to full intensity or sheered to a bare stain. Three years ago I thought it was the boldest shade ever (I wore it to college and felt like everyone was staring at me); now, I'd wear this to the market without skipping a beat. Ah, growth.

In the above pictures, I layered it over Chanel Rouge Noir to make it "seasonally fashionable." Dior's glosses are super comfortable and moisturizing, which is the unfortunate codeword for not long-lasting. It will come off with any food or drink, or even a simple swipe of tissue (you don't even have to rub). 

A rudimentary Google search shows that there really isn't a ton of permanent edition dark plum glosses lying around, so if you're the glossy kind of girl and want the extra polish over a dark, vampy lip, this is it.

Dior Addict Ultra Gloss in Black-Tie Plum #982 retails for $28 and is available at Nordstrom.

Also, two Friends & Family sales happening now:

Shopbop - WEAREFAMILY at checkout for 20 percent off. Till 11.59PM tonight.

Saks Fifth Avenue - FRNFAM2 at checkout for 20 percent off. Till October 21 (starts in-store Oct 18).

I'll get a (minuscule) commission if you purchase through my links. Any support is much appreciated!

The New Chanel Rouge Allure in Rouge Noir #109

Chanel recently updated its Rouge Allure formula and the only reason I knew was because they put up signs at their counters saying so. I was initially prepared to skip the collection, but after I swatched Notorious the Chanel SA asked if I would like to try anything and my eyes locked on to Rouge Noir #109. If you recall, I've been searching for a perfect vamp for over two months and haven't made any progress, so I swiped it on my lips. 

There's an idiom in Chinese about looking for something you really want to no avail, only to find it without effort. That was basically how I felt.

The new Rouge Allures sport the same packaging as the old ones, with its click-to-open mechanism and sleek black frame. The new formula is supposed to be more moisturizing and more intensely pigmented, but since my only acquisition is a vampy shade, I don't know if the pigmentation claim is true.

On a side note, I recently rediscovered my love for the Guerlain 2 Place Vendome Eyeshadow Palette. I initially stopped using it because I could never make it look flattering on me, but I later realized it's because I kept trying to use all six colors at once. For the look in this post, I applied the lightest shade below the brows and inner corners to highlight, the leftmost shade all over the lid, the bottom shade on the crease, and the rightmost shade as liner. 

Sweater is from Club Monaco, purchased a year ago

All in all, I'm pleased with my purchase. Rouge Noir applies evenly provided you don't have dry lips (lip balm is your best friend!), and it's so pigmented that one swipe is all you need. When I tested it, the lipstick lasted at least five hours, only slightly losing its sheen throughout. I removed it at the five hour mark because it was the end of the day, but with this color I'm pretty sure it could hold on much longer.   

Ingredient list for those who need it:

Chanel Rouge Allure Rouge Noir #109 retails for $34 and is available at Chanel.com, Nordstrom, and Neiman Marcus. I purchased mine from Saks Fifth Avenue New York.

Products used in this post:

· Skin: Le Métier de Beauté Peau Vierge #2 mixed with Burberry Fresh Glow Luminous Fluid Base, RMS Beauty "Un" Cover-Up #22, RMS Beauty Living Luminizer

· Eyes: Guerlain 2 Place Vendome Eyeshadow Palette, Guerlain Noir G Mascara

· Cheeks: Chanel Notorious Blush, Benefit Dandelion Blush

· Lips: Chanel Rouge Allure Rouge Noir #109, lined with Make Up For Ever Aqua Lip Waterproof Lipliner Pencil #13C

Announcement: Moving forward, some links featured on Messy Wands will be affiliate links. What this means is if you click on a link through my website and end up purchasing an item, I will earn a tiny  commission (there will be no difference in price on your end). The content on the site will stay exactly the same - after all, you know my weakness for hard-to-access Japanese brands and I wouldn't be able to link those - though perhaps this will encourage me to post complete product lists more often! 

I'm starting to explore this because I need to start alleviating the monetary cost of running a beauty blog. As much as possible, I've always stated exactly where I purchase my stuff, so if you are against affiliate links for any reason, you can still easily find out where you can buy a certain item and purchase it however you feel comfortable. That said, I will definitely appreciate any support you give me. Thank you in advance, dear readers!